I'm a real sucker for drama, heartache, emotional backlash and what not - it's got to be the drama queen in me; I don't know. I was watching One Tree Hill tonight - the episode What could have been - and I was just struck by the emotional depth of that episode. Peyton's hurt over Jake's refusal to let her visit him in jail, Dan's uncharacteristic outcry when talking to Nathan and telling him not to become like him, a man spending his life wishing he was someone else, Brooke's fears about getting involved with Lucas again...but I think what got to me the most out of the entire episode was Lucas' reaction shot after Brooke told Karen that they were only friends, nothing more. Those unshed tears just sucker-punched me. I think because most males in our society tend to deny their emotions or at least try to repress them, it hits you even harder when you see it - I know it does that to me anyways. I doubt anyone can say Chad Michael Murray can't act after having seen his many roles, but Lucas is definitely his best by far!

I'm French-Canadian, and as such, I get the dubious honor of being able to watch my favorites series in English and - when they make it to that stage - in French. What irks me to no end though is how the titles get bastardized until they don't look remotely the same. Sue Thomas FBEye remained slightly the same when it turned into Sue Thomas: L'oeil du FBI (Sue Thomas: The Eye of the FBI). But when One Tree Hill became Les Frères Scott (the Scott brothers), the focus shifted from the town and the people in it to the relation between Lucas and Nathan. But it's still not as bad as CSI becoming Les Experts (the Experts)...that one I still have a hard time getting my head around to. And I won't even get into the poor translation they make INSIDE the program. Names are not meant to be mistreated this badly just because they turned to French. *sigh* Well, this is it for my rant of the day. All I can say is: I so much prefer watching my shows in English!

Fox brings us another show that can either be very promising, or be a total bust - it’s hard to tell anymore with this network. Prison Break is a show about a prison designer who commits a crime and gets himself thrown in one of the prisons he designed in order to help his wrongly accused brother who is slated to be executed. Now, I have to admit the premise is like no other I have seen on TV and the previews do look interesting, but so did the previews for The Inside and that show didn’t fare too well… Prison Break premieres on August 29th for a 2-hour special.

There seems to be a new trend in television programming lately with shows dealing with the Federal Bureau of Investigation - most commonly known as the FBI. This is nothing new, shows like the X-Files dealt with the subject and, for the past 3 years, so has Sue Thomas F.B.Eye. But have you stopped to take a closer look lately? You have Without a trace, The Inside, Numb3rs, The Closer (from what I heard because I don’t get that show here in Quebec)…and that’s only more recent shows! And this fall, we'll get to see CBS’s Criminal Minds, a show about a team of investigators from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit as skilled as they are determined to get inside the criminal mind and get the criminals off the streets. Patriotism is alive and well in the good ole US of A; and even if I am Canadian, I am enjoying the ride!

I just can't get over how boring summer can be when it comes to TV programming. Every year, it's the same thing: boring reruns (okay, sometimes interesting reruns - but reruns all the same!), shows on hiatus, a boatload of TV reality most intelligent human being shouldn't be interested in...yet somehow, they must be successful because they keep making them! I miss the days when as a young kid, we'd have Chips or Starsky & Hutch play year-round...when Charlie's Angels would not play for 6 months out of the year and then leave us hanging while the girls went on to acquire a tan during the "good" season. I don't know about anyone else, but I so easily get bored when I have nothing to do or nothing worth watching!

I never thought I'd be able to say one day that I became addicted to a TV reality show, but this is what happened with Rock Star: INXS. Maybe that's because I don't consider it as much of a reality show as all the Big Brother, Bachelor, Beauty & the Geek and countless variations of the same concept. The guys have found a way to get interest going in the band, while insuring old and new fans will look for their next album as it comes out - question to make sure the winner they choose at the end of the journey sounds as good as they figured he/she would. At this point, I am thorn between who I would rather see lead INXS. Ty has continually blown me away as has Jordis. J.D. had immense potential and would make another great frontman. Marty has surprised me in the past 2 weeks with solid performances that made me take notice. Mig has a certain stage presence that he needs to channel more often in mu opinion. One I do NOT see going much further in the game is Brandon. I am amazed he made it this far truth be told. Rhythm and pitch are an important part of being a singer, so when you have none of those innate talents...the road ahead can only be bumpy and rough. One thing is for sure. The new lead singer will not be a new Michael Hutchins, but maybe this is not entirely a bad thing after all.

I sat in front of my TV set tonight, browsing the TV guide to see what I could possibly watch when I saw something that caught my eye. Having had to live through the bombarding of Reality TV, I was familiar with the name Charlie O’Connell and the fact his brother Jerry was a common figurehead in Crossing Jordan - a show I had yet to watch to be honest. So, as I was saying, as I browsed, I saw that Crossing Jordan would probably be the only show that could hold my attention, as long as the episode seemed interesting. I looked for the summary and it just nudged my interest up a bit. Tonight’s episode was said to be Skin & Bone, and Charlie O’Connell would be playing Calvin, Woody’s brother. Immediately I wondered how good a job he’d do, and what the chemistry between the O’Connell brothers would be on screen - so I settled in to watch… and I got hooked! Charlie can act… or at least I think he can. Then again, maybe he can’t but the fact he is comfortable with Jerry lent him some credibility. Who knows anymore? But the fact of the matter is: Calvin was very credible. I just loved the interaction between Cal and Woody, the rough-housing in the elevator, the constant bickering… It reminded me of my own relationship with my younger brother. That love/hate relationship was something I could entirely relate to. You love that sibling, but at times you’d love nothing better than to throttle them because they make you so mad or irritate you that much. And when they let you down, you feel so much disappointment you wished you could just turn them away from you. I thought that the writers did a great job of demonstrating that and playing up that duality. At the same time, the other plots were interesting. Bug’s attack, the mobsters shallow grave, Lily having to deal with her difficulty to feel any kind of sympathy for those deaths right until the moment one of those mobsters’ daughter showed up and finally put a heart and soul on the mugshot. That was a grand episode that definitely got Crossing Jordan a new fan… and one who would love to see more of the Woody/Calvin struggle.