Shane

Survivor: Thailand Episode 2

For one reason or another, the Chuay Gahn tribe decided they didn’t like John and voted him out in Survivor: Thailand Episode 1.

Chuay Gahn is awakened by Clay’s snoring. Funny, they don’t seem overly concerned about the bats in the cave they’re sleeping in, but the snoring is a problem.

Helen and Jan go to get water. Helen insists on not bothering to take the map because she believes she can get there with no trouble. Well, everybody knows right away that’s a mistake. While the girls are exploring abandoned islands full of snakes, the boys stay behind and play golf with Clay’s luxury item. Then it starts to rain. As Helen and Jan continue to paddle toward an unknown destination, Helen wishes for a pistol so that she could shoot them both.

Over on Sook Jai, they’re still obsessed with their shelter. Stephanie and Jed aren’t bothering with it, thereby making themselves outcasts. Jed views this as frivolous. It’s day 4, and they’re still not anywhere near done. However, for their part, although nobody appreciates it, Jed’s taking care of food, while Stephanie takes care of water.

Back to the water crew. Helen’s so dehydrated she’s about ready to pass out, but she’s finally found the water. Meanwhile, Jan’s floating in the water relaxing. It took them 4 or 5 hours, but they have managed to complete their task.

5 people from Sook Jai go to find food. The other three (Stephanie, Robb, and Jed) don’t want any part of this food. Shii Ann notices a strange atmosphere amongst the tribe. Further alienating themselves, the three who didn’t want any food refuse to sleep in the shelter as well, so they end up sleeping in the rain. Jed goes under the shelter whether anyone likes it or not, but Stephanie just stays out in the rain all night long. Interestingly, they speak negatively of him for coming in the shelter, and they speak negatively of her for not coming in the shelter. Ultimately, though, the key point here is that getting sick out there is not something you want to invite.

Helen ends up spending her 20th wedding anniversary on their beach, the price you pay for the chance to win $1 million (she can go anywhere in the world she wants when this is done, whether she wins or not). Everybody puts together a little celebration for her.

Each tribe will select one tribe member to be their guide at the reward challenge. Everybody else will be blindfolded and will carry the guide through a figure 8 course and collecting colored bags along the way. Reward is an extra lantern, fishing hooks, a fishing line, and a 30 meter fishing net. Stephanie sits out for Sook Jai. Tanya and Penny (whoever they are) will be the guides. Chuay Gahn starts off with a pretty good lead. By the time they get to the fourth station, it’s a dead heat. The guides are doing a pretty good job of running people into trees and posts along the way. Sook Jai gets the lead and retains it to end up winning reward.

Tanya’s still struggling as her tribe tries to nurse her back to health.

Clay’s walking on the beach and notices a bunch of squid washed up on shore. So they decide to eat it. Who cares if they died due to a nearby toxic waste dump?

The immunity challenge is to get six missing pieces from a floating puzzle by swimming and diving underwater. They will get the pieces and finish the puzzle. Shii Ann sits out for Sook Jai. Jed and Brian face off first, and Jed gets a slight lead. Helen and Jake go next. Jake increases the lead. Robb and Jan are next, and Robb has about half a lap lead. Penny tries for Sook Jai, but she eventually gives up and tags Jed. This gives Ghandia the lead, but it doesn’t last for very long as Jed retakes the lead. Ted and Erin are next, as Sook Jai retains a slight lead. Stephanie and Clay are next. This could very well be do or die time for Stephanie, and she manages to keep the lead and win immunity for Sook Jai.

Jan ends up taking the blame, but it’s really hard to point fingers because there’s no one person who necessarily lost that challenge. Sook Jai just in general outplayed Chuay Gahn. If anything, I’d blame Ghandia, who had the chance to run away with it but gave up her rather large lead.

Ghandia is tired of Helen, but she may vote for Tanya, who may be ready to go.

Votes
Tanya
Helen
Helen
Tanya
Tanya
Tanya

By a vote of 5-2, Tanya has been voted off the island. Ghandia stands alone, but everybody else opts to eliminate the sick tribe member.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Thailand Episode 3 Family Values.

The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 1

I tend to shy away from new shows, mostly because they often get cancelled so quickly. But I’ve gotta at least give a vampire show from Dawson’s Creek creator Kevin Williamson and the network that brought us Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel a shot. Since it is from The CW, I’m certainly hoping it at least sucks less than Moonlight did (admittedly, I only watched one episode of that, mostly because I could only get through one). Besides, since it is The CW, this show would have to average about three viewers to not at least get a full season.

This is the story of a vampire named Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley), who’s been invisible for a century, until now.

A couple are driving along through so much fog they look like they’re in London, when they run over a pedestrian. Don’t worry. He’s alive, in a manner of speaking. It was pretty well just a set up. Fresh blood to drink.

So why’d he return here anyway? He has to know her, her being Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrey). When she’s in the car with her friend Bonnie (Katerina Graham), she’s informed that Bonnie is a psychic now, or at least that’s what her grandma says. Well, that could come in handy. Her prediction for Elena: everything will be great.

Stefan’s plan is to enroll in Elena’s school, which totally works for a 27 year old. In addition to his ability to leap off tall buildings, he’s also got a mind control power that allows him to get access without a complete file.

Elena’s little brother Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen, grandson of Steve McQueen) is hanging out with the crackheads and stoned on his first day. After yelling at Jeremy, Elena bumps into Stefan for the first time as she’s leaving the men’s room, something which she can’t quite explain.

After school, Elena heads to the cemetery to write in her diary and visit her parents Grayson and Miranda. She must have said she’s fine 37 times today but didn’t mean it once. People don’t really want an answer to the question “How are you?” While there, she’s greeted by a creepy bird and excessive amounts of fog. Vampire guy to the rescue. They’re having a friendly chat, and he pretty much better bail since she’s bleeding.

Jeremy’s got himself a crush on Vicki Donovan (Kayla Ewell), who apparently just considers him her dealer, with benefits.

That night, Stefan shows up at Elena’s house to apologize for his disappearing act and return her diary. She tells him he doesn’t have to stand out there. He’s gonna need a little more of an invitation than that. They head to the local hangout, where her ex-boyfriend Matt finds it pretty apparent she must be have moved on pretty quickly.

When he returns home, Stefan’s accused of being responsible for the killing of the couple in the paper. He’ll be sticking around, though. If he doesn’t belong there, where does he belong? Then he pulls out a picture from 1864 of a girl, Katherine, who looks remarkably like Elena.

In history class, the teacher’s managed to stump everybody about a battle that’s one of the town’s most significant events. Everybody except the guy who lived it. There were 346 casualties, not including the 27 civilians, which is news to the teacher Mr. Tanner.

When Bonnie touches Elena, she sees a crow and fog. Maybe she is psychic.

Having just narrowly escaped being attacked by Tyler and then telling Jeremy to get lost because she doesn’t want to be used, Vicki heads into the woods. Alone. This won’t end well. As Jeremy’s stumbling about and running away from a lecture from his sister, he trips over a body with a bite mark in her neck, but she’s not dead.

If Stefan’s not doing the attacking, who is? That would be his brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder, who looks a lot different than when he played Boone on Lost). So he’s the one with the creepy crow. They haven’t seen each other in 15 years, so why’s he there? Not answering the question, he knows what Stefan’s doing there: one word, Elena.

Bonnie doesn’t think she’s really psychic, but whatever she saw, she has a feeling it’s just the beginning.

What the arrival of Stefan’s brother does provide is an explanation of what that unusual ring he wears is. It protects him from turning into a big pile of dust in the sun.

Vicki’s in the hospital with Matt watching over her. When she wakes up, she just has one thing to say. Vampire.

Through their ordeals of the past days, Stefan and Elena have both realized that the bad things follow them, and it’s not just as simple as forgetting the past. They’re just waiting for something good to fight the bad.

As the episode concludes, Stefan gets an invite into Elena’s house. That’ll be good until he turns all evil and stuff.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Episode 2 Night of the Comet, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Big Brother 11 Episode 28

Michele’s completely mysterious strategy finally came to an end as she was voted out in Big Brother 11 Episode 27. We left off with the houseguests in an endurance competition for the first part of the final HOH.

For the first time, the HOH will not be crowned tonight. Well, that oughta make tonight pretty close to pointless then. Instead, the season will end in a live 2 hour finale on Tuesday night.

Kevin wants to win HOH to take Jordan with him. Jordan doesn’t trust anybody. Natalie pretty well just hates Michele’s guts and wants to trash her. As promised, the seasons keep changing. They get heavy rains, wind, snow, all the while trying to run on this log that’s moving in random directions. Kevin’s been shaking for a while, but finally Jordan joins him. Not long after that, the log starts moving, and Jordan drops at 3 hours and 27 minutes. Natalie’s thrilled. Thrilled enough to throw the competition? Yes, she is. Dumb move. Kevin wins the first part of the HOH competition.

In the jury house, Lydia and Russell say they want Kevin to win. In addition to the fact that Lydia was Kevin’s partner throughout, she’s also bitter that she was dumb enough to believe that Natalie is 18. They’re all quite happy to see Jeff walk in the house. He has hope for Jordan. It seems everybody has turned on Natalie. In addition to how stupid everybody else was to believe her, she was dumb enough to believe she could trust Jessie, who has revealed the first chance he has to each jury member that she’s really 24. Ironic considering Kevin insists he has to get rid of her. Granted, I’m not real sure it matters for Kevin because it’s going to be hard to justify a Jordan vote unless you’re Jeff and Michele.

Julie will now be talking to 4 1 of the best players in Big Brother history, Danielle. Oh, she will also be chatting with the somewhat competent Mike Boogie and two people whose 15 minutes of fame really should be over by now, Janelle and Evel. Danielle thinks Natalie has played the best game because she’s lied and gotten Kevin to do her dirty work. Janelle says the worst move of the season was Jeff getting rid of Russell. Boogie liked two moves: the coup d’etat (which he himself didn’t use) and Natalie and Kevin’s lie to dupe Jeff. The others agree with this lie. Mike would like to see people cut Chima a little slack considering the nature of the house. Evel, who purposely tried to sabotage his own game so his daughter could stay in the house, says you couldn’t drag him out of there no matter what. Boogie thinks Kevin will win due to his strategy and also avoiding conflict. Danielle would like to see a woman beat a guy for the first time.

The second part of the final HOH competition is to place the Heads of Household in the correct order by tossing balls into holes. If you get the order right but land in the wrong hole, that’s too bad. They will each get 2 minutes. Natalie is first. This is something you’d think they would have learned by now, but Natalie’s struggling with it. Natalie finishes with 2 seconds left on the clock and 5 correct answers. Jordan is up next. Unlike Natalie, she seems a lot more confident in her answers. She finishes with 18 seconds left and 9 correct to win part 2 of the final HOH. Interestingly, nobody expected Jordan to win anything, with good reason, but it’s obvious she figured out that this is something you need to study.

Oh, by the way, how is a tie decided in the final two? That’s right. America’s Choice. Not surprising. Nonetheless, stupid. Of course, this would not be the first time America’s vote has decided the game’s outcome (season 8 comes to mind, and there’s certainly an argument for this season as well), but it would mark the first time it’s been nothing but a popularity contest since season 1.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 11 Episode 30, where we will find out who the Big Brother 11 winner is, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on CBS.

Big Brother 12

Despite the fact that nobody in the house has the slightest clue how to play the game this year (even the brains were idiots), Big Brother 11 has continued to improve its ratings over previous seasons as the summer has progressed, thanks to the wacky/volatile cast. Combine that with the fact that Julie Chen (wife of CBS president/CEO Les Moonves) says she intends to keep hosting the show for years to come, and this announcement comes as no surprise.

CBS has announced plans to bring Big Brother back for season 12 for next summer. Although no details have been confirmed yet, I guarantee you there will be at least one horribly lame twist with the potential to derail the entire season.

Ellen DeGeneres Joins American Idol

Ellen DeGeneres has been announced as the replacement judge for Paula Abdul for American Idol season 9.

Last season on So You Think You Can Dance, she made an appearance as a guest judge. Entertaining… but didn’t really seem to have much input. Granted, it’s not as if Paula ever really had much input that made any sense anyway, and at least Ellen’s funny.

Ellen acknowledges that she doesn’t have any technical experience in the field, but she hopes to be the people’s point of view, representing all those people at home on the couch with something to say.

America’s Got Talent Season 4 Episode 24

The final 10 semifinalists performed in America’s Got Talent Season 4 Episode 23, and tonight 5 more will advance to the finals.

Apparently, the Presidential address is like the Energizer Bunny. A live blog will begin whenever this is over.

Tonight there will be no judges’ pick. I don’t know. I’m okay with them making a choice.

Hairo Torres and FootworKINGZ step forward. This one’s obvious: Hairo advances to the finals.

Erik and Rickie are next up against Jeffrey Ou. I don’t see either of them making it. Neither do.

Mario & Jenny are up against Recycled Percussion. This would be a tough call if Mario & Jenny put on a good act last night, but it’s a no brainer that Recycled Percussion is the group to advance.

Lawrence Beaman, Drew Stevyns, the EriAm Sisters, and Barbara Padilla are competing for the three remaining spots. Between the three, I’d have to get rid of the EriAm Sisters. They’ve got great potential but just are not quite there yet. Obviously, Barbara Padilla is the first one to advance. Piers calls her performance the single greatest vocal performance ever on this show. The next spot goes to Lawrence Beaman. The final spot in the top 10 goes to Drew Stevyns.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of America’s Got Talent Season 4 Episode 25, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 1

So You Think You Can Dance is back for its first fall season and sixth season overall. Tonight the audition rounds kick off in Los Angeles.

Cole Clemens has something special to show the judges. It’s not dancing. Or anything good. Complete silence from the audience. Felt off off Broadway, like in Cleveland.

Mollee Gray is from Utah, home of High School Musical. Apparently, though, dancing in those movies was insufficient, so she packed up and drove away to California. Adam is a huge fan and loves the energy he’s getting from her. Mary thinks she will be a sponge. Nigel felt she’s a beautiful dancer, but she failed to make a connection.

David Hovhannisyan, Amanda Kirby, and Brandon Dumlao get rave reviews from the judges.

I’m expecting Ryan Kasprzak to advance to the top 20 and do very well this year based on how popular his brother was last season. His audition is a formality. Adam calls it the best audition he’s ever seen on the show. Nigel agrees it was one of the most unique, brilliant auditions.

Likewise, Bianca Revels was cut in Vegas last year, when she swore she would not be returning. So of course she’s back again. With prodding from Nigel, she agrees to do a tap battle with Ryan. She may have gotten lost in the crowd with whatever audition piece she planned, but that will help make people remember her.

Christopher Aguilar came here to make a film called Drum Song. Here’s hoping he doesn’t injure himself in the process. Despite the high level of sucking, the judges all really get into this routine.

Amber Williams has a story about how her mother is paralyzed from the waist down and finds it moving to watch her dance. Nigel found the performance beautiful, but again he’s looking for charisma. Adam is blown away.

Alexie Agdeppa and Paula van Oppen get put into a going to Vegas montage.

Salsa dancer Christina Santana immediately gets a wow out of Nigel and then a few more wows to boot. Mary thinks it’s fabulous and finds out she also does ballet, jazz, and belly dancing.

Phillip Attmore was Ryan Kasprzak’s roommate on tour. We can expect a lot out him then. Nigel thinks this may be the year of the tappers.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 2, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.

America’s Got Talent Season 4 Episode 23

The first group of 4 5 advanced to the finals in America’s Got Talent Season 4 Episode 22: The Texas Tenors, Grandma Lee, Kevin Skinner, Voices of Glory, and the Fab Five. Now the other half of the semifinalists perform for America’s votes.

Recycled Percussion is back playing drums on items they located at the local junk yard. Ryan has a story about how he got through tough times in his life by drumming. Piers is not sure whether they’re incredibly talented or completely mad. Sharon wants to see how much clothing she can get them to take off.

Lawrence Beaman sings I Keep on Falling in Love with You by Alisha Keys. Sharon loves the rich voice but could have done without the vocal acrobatics. Hoff liked the contemporary song choice. Piers, however, would prefer the old stuff and didn’t really like that performance.

Erik and Rickie have been working extra super duper duper hard on their new routine, where they play dolls coming to life in a toy store. Piers buzzes. Brave, but a bit like eating fries and custard together. Hoff thinks that Rickie’s the boy and Erika’s the girl. Sharon could not fault anything.

Despite the technical difficulties he faced, Jeffrey Ou managed to make it through the last round, surprising even himself. This week, his keyboard is hooked up to the lighting system, so he’s controlling all the lights. Piers buzzes again. The performance was a bit like Jeffrey’s hair, completely out of control. Sharon, however, was happy to see the return of the mad scientist, although the playing was pretty out there and not very good. Hoff thinks he enjoyed it. He’ll tell whether or not later.

Hairo Torres returns for some more freaky dancing. How the bloody hell does he bend his body like that? Sharon admires the addition of all the new steps, and she hopes to see him back. Piers and Hoff found him to be good fun.

The EriAm Sisters sing When You Believe from The Prince of Egypt by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. A dangerous song choice unless you’ve got the voice to pull it off. In parts, they do. Piers thought it was a pretty shaky start, but it became really good when they got their confidence.

Mario & Jenny start off dancing, something I could do without from this particular act. Piers buzzes them. Then Mario starts playing the drums. Huh? Finally, he lights the drum on fire and balances it. That’s the extent of the danger in their act. Piers thought they blew it. Sharon likes that they’re not one dimensional.

Drew Stevyns is the only wild card act to make a splash. He sings Never Gonna Dance Again by George Michael, a contemporary version that would work today. Sharon didn’t like the song but does like Drew and hopes that he, too, is in the finals. David compares it to Daughtry. Piers thinks the massive gamble to do that song like that paid off.

The FootworKINGz made it through as a judges’ pick last time. They will try to dance at 188 beats per minute, up from their typical 160-170. Buzzer from Piers again. Then Sharon. David just wants to see them dance, not this laser Power Rangers routine. Piers considered that career suicide. Sharon’s tired of seeing the same thing every time, even if it’s very well done.

Like Kevin Skinner last week, Barbara Padilla is the one the others in the group are trying to keep up with this week. She sings Ave Maria to a standing ovation. Piers says that all of America will remember where they were when she sang that because tonight a superstar was born. Sharon bows down to her.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of America’s Got Talent Season 4 Episode 24, which airs Wednesday at 9/8c on NBC.