Amazing Race Asia

Finally, all the reality TV shows are coming back. Last night was the premier of Amazing Race: Asia. It's supposed to be the "toughest race yet". Well, they are in season 3, so it's not like it is hard to beat. The teams are interesting, the locations are beautiful, and watching people eat deep fried bugs is always a good time.

TV: The Tudors

Did I tell you about my latest obsession? Lana can attest to you that when I decide to like something, I really really like it. My latest is The Tudors. I've read several of the Philippa Gregory books, and I've downloaded season 1, of the Showtime show, "The Tudors". It's really good. It helps too that Henry VII, is a total hottie. I'm almost done season one, and have to wait until December until season 2 comes out on DVD (hint hint Paulina, buy it for Joe to give to me for Christmas!).

In season 1 it is the time period where he first meets Anne Boyeln, similar to the books. You have to concentrate quite a bit to watch though, but the costumes and scenery are excellent. It's a lot of characters to keep track of, but I think I'm doing okay. It's really just a big soap opera, and I've been following soaps since I was in utereo.

Olympics

Wow! Those opening ceremonies were pretty good (from what I saw). I didn't see the entire thing, as we went out shopping, so I came in around 10:30, during the atheletes parade. But I did see the lighting of the torch, pretty amazing! And then they repeated the ceremonies, so I watched the drummers, but then fell asleep.

And Happy Birthday Singapore!!

Television: Survivor (Spoilers)

If you are watching Survivor this season, and haven't seen the finale yet, stop reading.

What a great season of Survivor. The blindsiding that went on. There was the fans at the beginning, but the blindsiding of Ozzy and Jason, but especially Ozzy was a thing of beauty. And then Eric, giving up the immunity necklace at the final 5, was just the dumbest thing ever.

Pavarti won it all. I think that Cirie deserved it the most, and Pavarti ended up taking the credit for most of Cirie's moves. Between Pavarti and Amanda, I had hoped that Amanda would win, but I guess Pavarti made the better alliances.

But overall, it was a great season of Survivor. Bring on Gabon!!

TV: Life After People

TV isn't the greatest here, unless you like having about 7 Discovery Channels, and then they all show the thing you want to watch at the same time. But good news is they repeat late at night. So I taped a show off the History Channel called "Life After People'. It was pretty interesting.

The premise was, what would happen to all the infrastructure and animals if we just vanished. There wasn't any mention of our decaying bodies, so I guess we were all zapped up by aliens.

Small house pets, like those small toy dogs, they don't do so well, and die out within a week or so. Either from starvation in the house, or by other animals. There were some surprizes though. Mice and rats, after the initial binge off all the leftover food, don't do so well, as they now have to go out into the wild to look for food. Owls do well though. Zoo animals were a toss up. If they can get out of the zoo, the big cats do very well (this was all taking place in North America). Cockroaches in the northern climates don't make it past the first winter, but southern neighbours do just find, plus no one wants to count out the cockroach.

The interesting thing was they went to the Ukraine, and to an abandoned city due to Chernobyl. The forests and wild life in that area in the past 20 years have made a major come back, and the wild boars, deers, etc, are the most densely populated there in all of Russia.

So the lesson really from the entire show, was the planet would do just fine without us.

Television without Pity

I read a website called www.televisionwithoutpity.com it does synopses of TV shows, mainly reality TV shows but some regular ones as well. It doesn't do comedy shows as they are difficult to recap.

It is a very enjoyable site, and even if I've seen the show, I always like to read what the writers have to say and read the comments on the forum.

American Idol

Yes, I know, another post about AI. For someone watching it for the first time, I sure think about it a lot.

What is up with their stupid theme song? For a music contest, the theme is pretty lame.

Simon and Paula seem to be in an abusive relationship.

Okay, I'm watching right now. Jim Carey is dressed up as Horton. That poor man.

American Idol

So I decided to watch American Idol this season. I've seen pieces of episodes here and there and know how it works (it's not rocket science). What I didn't realize was what a huge time commitment the show is. I mean, it's three hours this week alone! And that is it cutting back. Not sure if I'll be able to convince Joe to watch that much. Think I'll be watching in the bedroom, which means no cross-stitching. But it does mean knitting, so not all is lost.

Y&R : Out of the Ashes

I know, two blogs in one day. But seriously - have you been watching Y&R? I'm only caught up to Friday (Canadian feed), so no spoilers for me. If you haven't watched that far, then there will be spoilers for you.

I watched all of last week Y&R this morning. Man it was good. I can't believe Friday's episode. I hope they don't kill off Jack, as he's the only remaining Abbot on the show. I'll be so upset if they do. In fact, I teared up a little bit when Sharon and Nick left him behind (I'm a big TV sap).

And was it just me, or was Nick really good looking trapped underneath the parking garage? They should put cement dust in his hair more often.

I can't believe it's taken Victor that long to get out there. Take a helicopter, man. And why isn't Nikki concerned about Victoria?

I'm downloading Monday's episode right now - it can't come down fast enough for me.

All about bit torrents

TV in Singapore leaves a little to be desired. Okay, a lot to be desired. There is no Young and the Restless (though they do have the Bold & the Beautiful - maybe I'll start watching it on mat leave), there's no Hell's Kitchen, no Daily Show with Jon Stewart, no Jay Leno, etc, etc.

So Joe found this thing called "bit torrent". People tape shows and post them on bit torrent websites. You then download them with their special software and you can watch the shows on your computer. As our computer and TV are one, we can watch it there. Plus I can watch it on my Palm.

So I get my Y&R fix. There are some flaws with the system though. I've only found one bit torrent website where Y&R is posted. It's someone who tapes from Global TV in Canada. However, it seems to be one person. So if they miss a show, or go on vacation, I don't get the download. So therefore I've missed Friday's episode. Luckily, CBS does do a synopsis so I can read up on it there.

We download Y&R, Hell's Kitchen (which surprizingly enough - Joe watches with me!), the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Joe might also download some MythBusters as while they do show it here, they are a couple of seasons behind.

To whoever posts up the Y&R on a daily basis. THANK YOU!!!!