Revenge.


Frankly I watch far too much television that is healthy for a normal human being and long ago I decided that I would not start watching any new more television series in order to concentrate on my work. However, there was just something about revenge that gave me a burning desire to watch it and I couldn't ignore it. So far, I've only seen one episode, but I'm already hooked. Although the characters are all in their mid-twenties and above I still find this show appealing and I think many other teenagers will too.


As the title suggests, this television show is all about revenge and it's actually an adaption of 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas. When Amanda Clarke was a little girl her father was taken away from her and arrested for a murder he did not commit. Her perfect life was ruined as she was put in an institution until she turned 18 and was emancipated. Upon her release, she found out that her father had died and left her a box. A box full of secrets. After reading her father's journals she discovered that he had been unjustly blamed and so she sought revenge on those who framed him. Taking on the new identity of 'Emily Thorn', she rents out her old home in the Hamptons where the people she seeks revenge upon spend their summers. It is not clear how exactly she plans on executing this revenge but it's clear that she means business. Don't be fooled by her pretty face and blonde hair. The opening episode shows Emily at her engagement party, but her fiancé is soon found lying dead on the beach. It is suggested that she planned this in order to get revenge on her fiancé's mother. The story then backtracks to when Emily first moves to the Hamptons and her meetings with all the other characters.

The acting is brilliant from all the characters, most of whom are very experienced and I've seen them countless times in other series. Madeleine Stowe plays Victoria Grayson, reigning queen of the Hamptons; Emily VanCamp plays Emily Thorn or Amanda Clarke, a mysterious girl who moves to the Hamptons to exact revenge on those who ruined her father's life; Gabriel Mann plays Nolan Ross, a genius software inventor who is richer than all the other characters put together, he recognises 'Emily' straight away and becomes her ally; Joshua Bowman plays Daniel Grayson, son of Victoria Grayson and Emily's future finacé; Henry Czerny plays Conrad Grayson, Victoria's husband and Nick Wechsler plays Jack Porter, a childhood friend of Amandas. All these actors are brilliant in their individual roles and they all bring something different to the table. Appearances are everything in the Hamptons so watch each and everyone of these characters transform from their real selves to their 'show' selves. They are the rich and glamorous but they've all got skeletons in their closets and they're not afraid to get their hands dirty. It will be interesting to see who's hiding what later on in the show.

This is a gripping and thrilling story and I have no idea what to expect or what's coming. This show isn't predictable in the slightest like many other American dramas, it's new, it's fresh and it's exciting. I can't tell you much more about the show or it's plot because I don't actually have a clue and that's what I love about it! I highly recommend this show to anyone and everyone, especially if you're bored of the likes of 90210 and Gossip Girl. Trust me, this is far more entertaining.

Gossip Girl. 


Not so long ago, Gossip Girl returned to our screens with more about the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. The last episode of season 4 was very exciting with lots of characters from the past and present coming together for a dramatic finale. Georgina came back for a visit and was looking for trouble and excitement to break from the norm of her new life where she is married to a business intern and is charged with the care of her child. Georgina uncovers Charlie's secret, something that audience's have been wondering for the entire series, and so the pair joined forces. It is revealed that Charlie is actually a twenty-four year old professional con artist called 'Ivy', who was hired by Carol Rhodes (Serena's Aunt) to impersonate Charlie, her own daughter, in order to gain access to her daughter's large trust fund. As Charlie was forced to grow up away from the Upper East Side, none of the Van de Woodsen's know what she looks like making this task fairly easy. However, the fun's over for 'Charlie' as she's secured the money for Carol and is forced to return to her old life under the pretence that she is mentally unstable. The thing that most viewers were keen to see was how Blair and Chuck's relationship would end up. They were an unlikely pair from the start but they soon rose to be Gossip Girl's favourite couple though we've never been certain as to whether or not it could last. Just as we thought all was well for the young couple, Chuck did something very unexpected and instead of announcing to Louis that he and Blair were now together, he gave them his blessing. This caused devastation for fans everywhere who had been rooting for Blair and Chuck from the beginning. As for Serena, well, her life seems to be getting back on track as she is last seen being offered a job in Los Angeles. Vanessa was seen selling Dan's book to a publisher, but will she keep the money or send it to Dan? Nate and Chuck went off travelling together whilst Blair spent the summer in Monaco with her Prince Louis. The final shot was a great cliffhanger as Dorota was seen clearing the rubbish bin in Serena and Blair's joint bathroom in which there was a pregnancy test that read positive, but which of the girl's is pregnant?

Uh oh, has Dan upset Blair?

Gossip Girl's ratings have gone down this season and despite the dramatic finale to season 4 I can't say that I'm surprised. Having reached it's fifth season people may be beginning to get bored of the drama which to be honest, doesn't seem to change an awful lot. There's always some sort of scandalous plot going on but the producers are really going to have to up their game and bring lots of new and unique material to maintain their viewers. From what I've heard, a lot of people preferred Gossip Girl when the characters were still in education and given that this show is targeted at the teenage demographic that's understandable. At the moment, the character's are starting their lives as adults and finding jobs which many teenagers find unappealing. With the focus now being on the character's careers and family lives and less on their relationships and frivolous activities of their youth it's started to become a younger version of Desperate Housewives. Don't get me wrong, I still love Gossip Girl, but as I've mentioned in some of my previous reviews, it is no longer one of my favourite shows and has been upstaged by newer and fresher television programmes. The plot lines are often regurgitated but slightly edited and there's not a lot of fresh and interesting new content in the show, but perhaps something more exciting will happen later on in the series, it's still early days.

Trouble brews for Blair as her future sister-in-law arrives

The focus right now is very much on Blair's impending marriage to Louis, the Prince of Monaco, and the careers of Nate and Serena. Chuck is going through a hard time as usual so nothing's really changed there. Unsurprisingly Chuck and Blair still seem to have unfinished business, will it ever end?! Seriously, this story line has been dragging on for far too long now. Charlie has reappeared on the Upper East side but this isn't particularly exciting for viewers as we already know her secret. Dan's book has just been published and he's been acknowledged as the author pushing away most of his friends and family who have been portrayed in an unfavourable light. Personally, if you're not a massive Gossip Girl fan then I don't really see the need for you to keep watching. If you're a new viewer then I definitely recommend you watch the earlier seasons as they were much more interesting.

What does Nate's new job entail exactly?

What do you guys think? Has Gossip Girl reached the end of it's run or will you continue watching?

Young Apprentice.



Lord Sugar is back to find another Apprentice, . Renamed 'Young Apprentice' as opposed to 'Junior Apprentice' was an obvious attempt to make the candidates look less juvenile, but I actually think this was needed given that there's nothing junior about any of them - in fact, they're probably more capable than half the adults in the business world right now! For those of you who haven't watched the Apprentice before, it's basically a competition to win £25,000 funding from Lord Sugar to kick start a business. However, one thing that I've always wondered about the younger edition of the show is whether or not the prize is worth it. Obviously by being on the programme the candidates get to showcase their skills to the world and, more importantly, Lord Sugar, and it is impressive on one's CV; however, is £25,000 enough? I guess Lord Sugar knows what he's doing and he has to approve any business plan before it goes ahead but I feel that it would be very easy to spend that £25,000 and if the profit doesn't roll in quickly then it'll be gone in no time. Maybe that's just me.

Initially there are 12 candidates, all of which are budding youngsters ages 16-17, who are all incredibly talented and most of them have already set up some sort of business or have other impressive skills. Obviously this is a serious competition but the cockiness and arrogance of some of them candidates is truly overwhelming. One example would be Haya Al Dlame, 16 years old, who bragged about her 8A*s and 2As at GCSE level. Yeah well, even I got better results than you but that doesn't mean I could win the apprentice. Academic achievement is obviously important, but it's not what Lord Sugar's interested in. This competition is about having a natural flair for business and showing your passion and talent. Lord Sugar pointed out what I've always wanted to say to the candidates: 'Don't try and pretend that you know it all because believe me it will be embarrassing. As embarassing as if Nick and I put on a cap and started doing a rap'. Well said Sugar.

Whilst the egos of the candidates are all fit to burst, they are all talented individuals who are sharp, intelligent and witty. One candidate made a very good point that 'money doesn't buy happiness, but neither does poverty'. My favourite candidate to win so far is Harry Maxwell. He's funny, energetic and a very charismatic and charming speaker. He's a bit cocky but hey, find me a teenage boy who isn't. At just ten years of age he started selling tickets on the internet and he's already set up three successful businesses encompassing cosmetics, travel, marketing and property. I also thought it was hilarious how he forgot to make sure the tap was shut on the ice cream machine before pouring the milk in - of course, it spilt all over his (very expensive, I'm assuming) shoes.

Task one assigned to the candidates gave us a great insight into all of the individuals in the competition and what their strengths and weaknesses are. The task was to create a range of frozen treats (i.e. sorbets and ice creams), sell them in a place of their choice and the objective is to the make the most profit possible. A factory was laid out for them and they were taught how to use the ice cream making equipment and I'm 

always quite impressed with the speed at which the candidates pick up culinary skills on this show. I took an instant disliking to Gbemi Okunlola, who is already an award winning fashion designer - she never seems to shut up. She said herself that she thinks she is aggressive and intimidating, and I definitely agree. She took absolutely no notice of her project manager and I thought she was also quite disrespectful towards her peers. She has an attitude that reminds me a lot of Mischa B, a contestant on the X Factor. Whilst the pair of them may be talented, they can't let their current success go to their heads, they need to remember their place. I don't even remember who any of Ben Fowler, Lizzie Magee, Zara Brownless or Hayley Richards are, so I think that says enough about them. Mahamed Awale just made me want to laugh. I know it's mean, but I would not be able to do business with a boy that small with a lisp and an accent. Plus the way he approached customers in the task was really quite aggressive and scary. James McCullagh almost made an epic mistake regarding pricing, and considering he attained joint first in Economics in N. Ireland, I'm disappointed. In addition, he seemed determined to take the credit for most of the things his team did which is never a good thing. Harry Hitchens was a fairly good team leader and came up with a great idea of delivering ice cream on the beach showing initiative. I didn't see much of his business knowledge or skills but I have a good feeling about him. Lastly, there's Lewis Roman, although I don't remember that much about him either, I remember thinking that he wouldn't go far in this competition.

This year's candidates are even more talented than last years and I think it's going to be an interesting competition. This is a great show to watch to pick up some random business tips and to get a feel for how things work out there. Whilst the candidates can be annoying, if you want to work in business you had better get used to people's self-centred and egotistical natures now. Right now I think both the Harrys are my favourites to win, but who knows, people can surprise you at the last minute. I highly recommend Young Apprentice which is both and interesting and insightful programme, especially if you're a budding young business(wo)man.

The Big Bang Theory.



The Big Bang Theory is now on it's fifth season and I'm pleased to say that it is still going strong and I haven't seen a regurgitated story line or joke yet. A lot of people seem to dislike The Big Bang Theory claiming that it is neither funny nor worth watching but I strongly disagree with this. For one, this show has won countless awards. In 2009, the comedy was voted best comedy series at the TCA awards and in 2010, the show was voted favourite comedy at the People's Choice Awards. Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon Cooper, has won numerous awards for his role in the show including the award for individual achievement at the TCA awards, a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Comedy or Musical, and another Emmy award for Best actor in a comedy series. In my opinion, that says it all. 

The characters may all be nerds but they are all very different individuals and it shows you that you can be clever and lead a normal life just like everyone else. Okay, so not quite like everyone else, but y'know the general life structure is the same. I don't think you have to be particularly intellectual to understand the jokes in The Big Bang Theory, but I can see why certain people who may not be interested in or have a decent knowledge of science may find this show hard to follow. I actually learn quite a lot from this show as you pick up on the nerd-related banter between the characters and it's sort of like learning without meaning to which is great!

Sheldon's mother comes to visit

Sheldon and Leonard think about starting a sword collection

What's going on with Penny and Raj?

Becca Fitzpatrick Book Signing.

(She actually looks a lot prettier in person!)

A couple of nights ago, I attended a Becca Fitzpatrick book signing in honour of the recent release of her latest novel, Silence. This is the third book of the Hush, Hush series following Hush, Hush and Crescendo, both of which were international bestsellers. For those of you that don't know, the series revolves around two teenagers: Patch and Nora; however, things aren't plain sailing for the young couple as Patch is a fallen angel, and Nora is a Nephilim - the two races are sworn enemies.

The room was packed!

gnom.

What I thought was really funny was that some events in the Hush, Hush series were inspired by events that actually took place during Becca's teenage years. For example, when she was a teen she moved to a different town and in this town it was customary to make grand gestures when asking someone to a dance. Her friends told her to ask the boy she had a crush on to the dance, but she couldn't think of a way to ask him so her friends suggested she give him a hot dog, with a little flag sticking out of it saying 'Beau, don't be a weiner, go to the dance with me'; however, at the very last moment, Becca chickened out, changing the name on the flag to 'Emily' her friends name. This caused a heap of problems given that Emily had already asked Beau's friend to the dance! Beau told his mum, Barbie (yep, that was her real name) about the invite and so Barbie got on the phone to all the other mums to try and suss out who had really asked Beau to the dance, and it was soon found out that it was Becca. How mortifying. Beau was forced to go the dance with Becca and he didn't speak to her for the whole night and just sat there with his arms crossed. Of course, this isn't exactly how things panned out her book; however, if you've read it you may remember Nora sneaking around in Scott's room and him coming home finding her there. Lacking inspiration, Nora held out a hotdog and said: 'Scott, don't be a weiner, go to the dance with me'. Nice save Nora. Becca's advice to any aspiring writers is to keep a journal, because you never know when something interesting might happen that you can use in your writing!

Her cure for writer's block is to plan everything out. She notes that this doesn't work for all authors, but she personally finds it very helpful to plan out exactly what's going to happen in each and every scene prior to writing it. If you find yourself stuck and unsure of what to write, this means that you've taken the story somewhere it wasn't supposed to go and she advises that you backtrack the story and try to take it a different angle and see where you end up. Whilst some writer's like to lock themselves in a room for several hours when writing, Becca simply sits in her study. Not everyone needs to have a special place for writing - what if something happened to your 'special place'? Would that be the end of your writing? It's probably better if you can write anywhere as opposed to attaching yourself to a particular place.

As for the covers of the book, I've always felt that the Hush, Hush ones have been striking and perfect for the books. Becca told us that 99% of the time, authors don't have a clue what the cover of their book is going to look like until it's published. She even said that one of her friends, a fellow author, didn't know what the cover was until she accidently stumbled upon her own book on Amazon! Fortunately for Becca Fitzpatrick, she had quite a large say in what the cover of her book looked like. First she was asked to choose two models, one for Patch and one for Nora. Then the both of them were called in for test shots and the model for Patch was asked to repeatedly do back flips for a whole 6 hours before they found the perfect shot. Apparently he felt no need to work out for the rest of the week because that shoot was exercise enough! At first, the cover for Hush, Hush was actually the other way round, which if you think about it makes a lot more sense since Patch was supposed to be falling from heaven. At the request of a book store, the cover art was rotated 180 degrees and whilst it is still very cool, Patch appears to be falling upwards, which of course, is impossible - but then again, he is a fallen angel.


Some of the Hush, Hush characters are infact based on real people. For example, Marcie Millar is based on a mean girl who used to pick on Becca at school and made it her life's mission to humiliate her. However, Nora is not based on Becca Fitzpatrick and her friends have told her that they have absolutely nothing in common, apart from the curly hair. Patch was supposed to the ultimate bad boy and was based on a boy that Becca once knew (she tried to look him up on Facebook but alas could not find him). One of the character's (sorry, I've forgotten which one!) was even named after one of her sister's ex-boyfriends. Upon reading the novel her sister called Becca up demanding an explanation, and then had to make a rather awkward call to her ex-boyfriend to explain that he'd been used in her sister's writing.

(SPOILERS) Now, the big question of the night was what's going to happen in the fourth and final book of the Hush, Hush series? For obvious reasons she couldn't give much away, but she did tell us that there's going to be a massive show down between two races and we'll learn a bit more about the archangels. Initially, Silence was supposed to be the last book of the series, but about half way through writing it, Becca realised that she had much more to say and decided she was going to write another. This was all kept very quiet at her agent's request, but earlier this month she was allowed to reveal the news. She's also intending to write another series after the end of Hush, Hush, but we are yet to be told what this new series will about.

The other big question was whether or not the series would be made into a movie. Becca confirmed that as of this moment there are no plans to make the Hush, Hush series into movies, but should the right director and the right actors come along then she might consider it. She stated that she wasn't even sure if she wanted the series to be made into films and I can see where she's coming from. She told us to imagine if we'd written a book and created a whole world with lots of different characters and someone came along and tried to put it onto the big screen. So many things could go wrong, if the movie wasn't exactly the way that she had envisioned her books then of course she would be left feeling very unhappy so it's understandable that an author would rather not sell her book rights.

... just one more photo

Drive. 
I actually feel quite nervous about writing this review because I really don't think I can do this movie justice. The only other time I felt like this was when I was trying to write the review for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 had massive sentimental value to me, so I think that goes to show just how good I think this movie is. I have made pages and pages of notes on this movies, though to be honest, I repeat myself quite a lot because the things that make this movie so brilliant are such minor things, which makes me wonder why all films as good as this? Drive has a shocking rating of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, something which I think really means something, only being beaten by We Need To Talk About Kevin (which opens tomorrow) and Tinker, Tailor, Solider Spy.

Now is it just me, or is Ryan Gosling in everything these days? I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one to think this way as Wikipedia notes that this has been a landmark year for the actor with three major films: Crazy Stupid Love (Click here for review), Drive and The Ideas of March. Although he hasn't done that many movies (he's done a lot, but not as many as some actors his age), I firmly believe that everything he does, he does to the best of his ability. Eight out of the eighteen films he's starred in that are currently out have been nominated for awards. It seems that since 2001 Gosling's been on a roll and I look forward to seeing all his future works because no doubt they will be brilliant too.

Intense.

I wasn't entirely sure what Drive would be about prior to watching it. I knew that it would involve a guy who drove the getaway cars for criminals but that was about it. To be honest, there's not a lot more to the plot line, and that's the only thing about this movie that I found disappointing. I think The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, has captured my thoughts exactly as he said: 'Drive is a movie with power but is still directionless; the acceleration is great, but the steering needs looking at.' Now Mr Bradshaw only gave Drive a rating of three stars, but I would have to disagree with this and give it a full five stars. At times I did wonder where this movie was headed and when it ended I still wasn't entirely sure what the point of the movie was, but absolutely everything else about it was just so perfectly brilliant, that this didn't matter to me. Ryan Gosling stars as a stunt driver for films who makes a bit of extra cash on the side by offering his driving services to criminals. However, he then falls in love with his neighbour, Irene (Mulligan), the wife of an ex-convict and so the both of them are dragged into a dangerous and criminal world.

Is that blood I see?

When the movie had finished and I realised that I still didn't know the name of the protagonist, I immediately kicked myself thinking that I was the stupidest person ever for not picking up on the main character's name. I had noticed about a third of the way into the movie that his name had still not been revealed and I remember thinking that this gave him and nice and mysterious touch; however, I thought that the audience would find out before the end of the movie. We did not. I had paid quite close attention during the film and I did not recall ever hearing him being addressed by a name and surprise surprise when I checked the film out on Wikipedia it turns out that he actually doesn't have a name and is referred to as 'The Driver' (by the way, Drive has nothing to do with the movie The Driver, so do not get the two confused). This was a really nice effect and to be honest I can't really imagine his character with any sort of name. The Driver is a curious character who betrays nothing through his facial expressions. He has an eerie sort of stillness that draws you in and I really must commend Ryan Gosling for this tremendous performance. His character had such a deadly silence that I found myself leaning forward in my seat, desperate not to miss a thing. He's just so subtle, so swift, so sly, so sleek, so sexy! Ryan Gosling must have had such concentration whilst filming and I really admire that, I even calculated that his facial expression didn't move at all for the first seventeen minutes of this film and even that was just a slight creasing of the eyebrows. There was one moment in the film where he had such an intense stillness about him that I couldn't tell if he was dead or alive! He doesn't give away anything about his personality and he says very very little. He speaks only when he has something to say, but otherwise he'll just keep quiet. I don't think I heard him ever raise his voice above a whisper in this whole movie and he managed to retain a stillness when speaking so that the only thing making an impact on you was his words. For most of the film The Driver is seen wearing the same white jacket with a scorpion on the back and this couldn't be more appropriate. Silent, but deadly. He may seem like a passive observer at first, but he can be threatening if he wants to; kind of like a snake that won't bite unless provoked. Everything The Driver does is so slow and careful, it makes his character really frightening, as you're not sure what to expect from him. Gosling also showed his compassionate side as there was a really passionate kiss in an elevator and also quite a teary scene. He is such a solitary being, we never see any of his friends or family and so it's all the more moving that he develops feelings for Irene and her son and becomes their ruthless protector.

*sings* What's your name? What's your number? Just kidding.

I've never ever seen a movie with a soundtrack that was so suited to the on screen action. As I said, The Driver is quite a quiet person, and so the music does the speaking for him. Sometimes it's just the tone of the music and at others it's the actual lyrics which are just perfectly suited for the scene. There was only one moment in this film where I thought that the music didn't entirely fit the scene, but although it was out of place, it sort of.. worked. The music is so subtle and eerie; it really helps to make The Driver look and feel alone. Sometimes the music drowns out the words and it makes the acting more powerful and alive.

I just checked the rating of this film and it's actually an eighteen. It's not until the second half of the film that you realise why this is needed - there are some really bloody scenes in this which was very unexpected and shocking. Now I'm not a squeamish person but for each and every death in this film I literally jumped back in my seat and covered my mouth because I was so taken off guard. These aren't your average gang murders, these are really gruesome and brutally bloody deaths. No effort was made to mask the brutality of these actions, they were given to you raw and that's probably what made them so effective. You could hear the bones crunching, see the bloody spurting and feel the agony of the victim. There are hammers, knives, razor blades, guns, as well as fists in this film and I have to say the murders are actually quite imaginative.


This movie is probably the best movie I've seen all year. I literally had no idea what to expect at any given moment, it just kept on surprising me - I wasn't even sure when the movie ended! The actors were all so incredible, especially Ryan Gosling, and they could convey every emotion without saying anything, and without moving a muscle, the look in their eye was information enough! There are a couple of high speed car chases to make this film a bit more lively and they're quite exciting scenes, different from your standard Fast and Furious car chases which everyone's seen countless times. I'd definitely recommend that you see this movie because it'll capture your every particle from the beginning to the end, it even received a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival!

Flying!

Friends With Benefits (TV series). 




Okay so firstly. The above photo is the movie poster for the show Friends With Benefits; however, now that I've had a proper look at it, I've realised that two of the people in this photo aren't even in the show. Who the heck are those two mysterious guys on the left? I have no clue. As you can see, this show is already off to a bad start.

As if matters couldn't get any worse, Friends With Benefits debuted back in August right after Friends With Benefits, the popular new film, was released. Well done NBC. Well done. However, this television show hadn't reached my attention until now and this is probably due to the fact that NBC decided not to allow critics to view the show before it's premiere consequently starving it of the attention that it needed. Note how I said that the attention it needed, not the attention it deserved.

This is the real cast.

Friends With Benefits is, as you can imagine, about a group of friends... with benefits. It's sort of like friends with more sex and less humour. Instead of waiting for Ross and Rachel to get together, we've skipped out all the messy stuff inbetween and we've arrived at sex central where Ross and Rachel, sorry Ben and Sara, are already going at it like rabbits. The sex scenes aren't even steamy or sexy, they just seem desperate. Of course, they say they're just friends, but we've all heard that one before. Another thing to make it more obvious that this is another attempt to recreate the Friends franchise is the fact that each and every episode is named: 'The benefit of ---'. Ring any bells? This is a blatant copy of the way that each Friend's episode was labelled: 'The one ---', and had the shown actually showed itself worthy of stealing some original Friend's ideas, I may have forgiven it. To be honest, there isn't much other 'friends with benefits' that goes on which made me doubt the whole purpose of the sure. Sure, the needy (and nerdy) Aaron, develops feelings for Riley after their one night hookup, but even that's not a major plot line. The other character, Julian, is what I can only assume to be the resident playboy, but he really doesn't suit the role and there aren't nearly enough scenes that show him to be this character and so he seems a bit like a lost cannon floating alongside the rest of the cast.

This show had the potential to be really funny and entertaining; however, it failed because it had a poorly constructed plot line and crap actors. Actually, the actors weren't crap, in fact they've all been pretty decent actors in their other works, but for some reason they were all awful in this movie. Everything was overexaggerated and not in a funny way, but an annoying and repetitive way. Right now in my brain I can picture each and every character with a particular look or action on their face which just goes to show how much each of them must've used those moves. Sara (Danneel Ackles) always has an indignant what-are-you-talking-about look on her face; Ben (Ryan Hansen) has the same look of confusion, or that annoying face he puts on when he's trying to be clever; Julian's (Andre Holland) either got a perverted smile on his face or raised-far-too-high eyebrows; Riley's (Jessica Lucas) always checking herself out in the mirror and Aaron (Zach Cregger) always looks dejected or exasperated.

This isn't a totally humourless show; however, the majority of the moments which were supposed to be funny are just annoying. The characters actions aren't funny, they just make them seem really dumb, which presumably wasn't the aim of the show. I found myself sighing with exasperation as I watched NBC's desperate attempt to make it's audience laugh. There were some moments when I laughed, but these were moments of incredulity when I was either stunned by the stupidity of the characters actions or stunned by the stupidity of the plot, still, I guess that's better than nothing.

Thankfully there are only 13 episodes to this series and each episode is only around 20 minutes long so I didn't waste too much of my time watching this. However, for some extremely odd reason, NBC decided to release the 13th episode, the season finale, on iTunes and Amazon only, meaning that viewers would actually have to pay to watch it. I'm pretty sure most people just said hell-to-the-no at that point and walked away. If they even bothered to continue watching to episode 13, which to be honest, is quite unlikely. It doesn't look like it's been a good couple of months for NBC as their other debut show, Love Bites, did not go down too well with the critics either.

Given that 'Friends With Benefits' has already finished airing on television, I don't particularly see much point in watching it now and it definitely isn't DVD worthy. Trust me, you're not missing out anything.

Abduction. 


I've been aticipating the release of Abduction for quite some time now as I was curious to see how Taylor Lautner would fare without his wolf pack. I'm not a massive fan of Lily Collins and I was worried that Abduction might not live up to the preconceptions I have built up in my head, but thankfully, this film did not disappoint. 


Abduction is about  a teenager, Nathan Harper, who finds a picture of his younger self on a missing child website whilst researching for his school project. However, as soon as he begins to ask questions all hell breaks loose and he finds himself caught up with the CIA - the good and the bad, and is on the run with Karen, his project partner. He desperately searches for his true identity after finding out his parents were not his birth mother and father and struggles when trying to decide who he should trust and who he shouldn't. 


The action in this is really realistic and I believed that every punch thrown was genuine. Taylor Lautner was able to show off his incredible fighting skills (he's a black belt) and his enormous strength. They weren't even your average stunts, they were really impressive bordering on Jackie Chan style moves. The bad guys seemed genuinely evil and all the secret agents played their CIA roles perfectly, there was nothing James Bond about them. There was also a raunchy (almost) sex scene and this coupled with the frequent scenes of violence means that I probably wouldn't recommend this for children, but for teenagers and adults it's fine. 


It was quite interesting seeing Taylor Lautner playing the role of an arrogant and popular dare devil and he had completely let loose and played the role very convincingly. Thankfully this bad boy attitude did not last for long as once the real action kicks off he transforms from an arrogant prick to a genuine and strong minded teenager. I'm happy to report that Taylor Lautner seems to have avoided being stereotyped as Jacob the werewolf and completely transformed himself into Nathan Harper and I hope he continues to branch out into other movies after the Twilight franchise as Abduction has shown that he's genuinely got talent (in case you didn't already know). Abduction has completely changed my opinion on Lily Collins. I used to hate her and her overly-defined eyebrows, but now I think she's actually quite a good actress and her and Taylor Lautner make a cute couple. Her character, Karen Murphy, can be a little whiny and annoying at times, but on the whole she's also a head strong teenager and a good match for Nathan Harper.

gnaww.

Taylor Lautner looks incredible hot in this movie what with the fight scenes, his cool attire and his motorbike. There are also some humorous moments in this, but they are infrequent as this is predominantly a teen action/thriller. There is an interesting and unique plot line that keeps you hooked the whole way through; however, it does slightly remind me of Stormbreaker as Alex Rider was similarly thrust into a world of spies, but there are very different endings for the characters. It was very cool how all the characters fitted in at the end when it is revealed who are the good guys and who are the bad guys, something that you're continuously wondering throughout the film. I definitely recommend this film if you're in the mood to be entertained!! 

Suburgatory Season 1. 

Oh look, a plastic sandwich!

Prom. 

Fresh Meat.

It's about time the British created their own drama about uni life and that's exactly what Fresh Meat is. Basically it's about six freshers who all miss out on Halls and so are forced to live in uni housing. Of course, they've already been branded the social outcasts so they have to learn to live with each other, the problem is, they're all such different people. There's JP (Jack Whitehall), the privately-educated posh boy, Kingsley (Joe Thomas, the virgin, Howard (Greg McHugh), the Scottish weirdo, Vod (Zawe Ashton), the too-cool-for-school, no nonsense chick, Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie), the one who's desperate to fit in, Josie (Kimberly Nixon), the naiive and innocent one. As time goes on they learn to get along ... or learn to live with each other at least. Expect lots of awkward moments, shifty eyes and long pauses.

I think there's a really great British cast and that was my main reason for watching it. I expected this to be a really great television show with a fantastical comical bunch of British actors; however, I was sorely disappointed. I mean, it's not a bad TV show, but it's not a particularly good one either. Although it follows the lives of uni freshers, there's nothing 'fresh' about it. It's fairly entertaining on a wednesday evening but it's the hope that it gets better that keeps me watching. Fresh Meat had such potential, but unfortunately I don't think enough effort was put into this to make it unique. Whilst the acting performances are good, they're not as great as they could've been. For example, Joe Thomas is an excellent actor, but his character, Kingsley, is basically Simon from the Inbetweeners, there's nothing new there. Jack Whitehall is a great pompous British guy, but there's just something about his performance that just doesn't ... work. He should probably stick to the stand up comedy. Zawe Ashton plays Vod and portrays her as a hardcore and headstrong girl; however, her never-changing facial expression means that I find it very difficult to understand her character and I can't tell if she's playing dumb or if Vod's got some sort of nonchalant attitude to life.


Rumoured to be the uni version of Skins, I have to say I'm disappointed. There is limited sex in this show despite the raunchy looking television poster. That's not to say that I'm some sort of sex obsessed maniac who thinks that sex is needed to make a good show, but if you're going to advertise the programme as one where a bunch of uni students have sex all the time, they could at least try to live up to their own standard because it's really misleading. Frankly the sex scenes in this are just really irrelevant and have probably only been put it because they think it'll make the show 'sexier'. They don't.

There two main things that bothered me were: the fact that all British dramas are portrayed in the same way. Firstly the dramas are always filmed in dingy little houses with awkward teenagers who drink, take drugs and have sex. I'd like to tell the producers that there are other types of British students! On the other hand that is what separates the British dramas from the American ones. The American ones like to show the lives of the glamorous and the well-off whereas the British like to focus on middle or lower classes in their teen dramas. The other thing that bothered me was the fact that this is supposed to be at Manchester University, which is actually quite a good university and since my friend's sister goes there I know for a fact that the majority of students there don't have it nearly as rough as the student's in Fresh Meat have it.

All in all, this is an alright show that's worth watching if you're bored and looking for something vaguely entertaining but to be honest, I could recommend you a whole host of television shows to watch before you even consider this one.

Favourite quote: 'Well maybe you should tuck your cock away while I make us a nice cup of tea?'

90210.