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Wednesday, December 28, 2016

2016 Year In Review - Television

2016 in the world of television was very much hit and miss.  You had some moments in television that were absolutely incredible, and then you had some moments which probably should have been deleted from the DVR.



But one thing you can't deny.  There certainly is a lot to talk about regarding television in 2016.  So, let's get right to it.

As I recall, I started the 2015 entry with television shows that were pulled off the air.  And this year, I thought that I would do the same this time around.  In 2016, we said goodbye to the following television shows...

Austin & Ally (January 10)
Unforgettable (January 22)
Undateable (January 29)
Galavant (January 31)
Gravity Falls (February 15)
Telenovela (February 22)
The Muppets (March 1)
Agent Carter (March 1)
The Mysteries of Laura (March 2)
MythBusters (March 6)
CSI: Cyber (March 13)
American Idol (April 7)
Togetherness (April 10)
Childrens Hospital (April 15)
Vinyl (April 17)
Limitless (April 26)
The Good Wife (May 8)
Grandfathered (May 10)
The Grinder (May 10)
Castle (May 16)
Mike & Molly (May 16)
The Meredith Vieira Show (May 20)
Game of Silence (June 5)
Penny Dreadful (June 19)
Person of Interest (June 21)
Cooper Barrett's Guide to Surviving Life (June 26)
Houdini & Doyle (July 4)
Royal Pains (July 6)
Angel from Hell (July 23)
Hell on Wheels (July 23)
Devious Maids (August 6)
The Jim Gaffigan Show (August 21)
Murder in the First (September 4)
Rizzoli & Isles (September 5)
Mistresses (September 6)
American Gothic (September 7)
BrainDead (September 11)
Beauty & The Beast (September 15)
Nancy Grace (October 13)
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (November 6)
Masters of Sex (November 13)

Wow...quite a list of shows, huh?



Now in some cases, these shows were limited run summer filler shows.  Case in point, the murder mystery "American Gothic" and the political satire show "BrainDead", both airing on CBS.  But there are a lot of one-season wonders on this list - many of them from NBC - a network that hasn't quite recovered from the loss of "ER" and "Friends".



The cancellation of "CSI: Cyber" effectively puts the final nail in the coffin of the once lucrative CSI franchise, and it's amazing how many shows ended after a significant run on television.  "The Good Wife", "Mike & Molly", "MythBusters", and "Rizzoli & Isles" all ran for at least five seasons!

I'm sure that Jim Gaffigan's show could have run a little longer than two seasons, but it was his choice to walk away so that he could spend more time with his kids.  I respect him for that.



And "American Idol" ended its run by crowning its final American Idol in Trent Harmon.  But don't cry for host Ryan Seacrest.  He still has at least twelve other jobs he can fall back on.

Okay, so we've mourned some of the shows that have been cancelled.  Now let's celebrate the shows that made their debut in 2016!



At first people were worried that when Michael Weatherly left NCIS, the show would tank.  But Wilmer Valderaama and Jennifer Esposito have breathed new life into the fourteen year old show, and I'm sure that as long as Mark Harmon stays alive (seriously 2016, stop killing off the rich and the famous), the show will continue to entertain.  Besides, Weatherly's new show "Bull" is also a hit on CBS, and has already been renewed for a second season. 



"Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" debuted on TBS in February 2016, and has recently been renewed for a second year.  The former Daily Show correspondent has certainly made her show her own, and I wish her the best of luck.  Chelsea Handler, meanwhile, has taken to Netflix for the newest chapter of her career.  Her talk show entitled "Chelsea" debuted on May 11.



Kevin James and Matt LeBlanc have also proven that sitcom luck can strike twice with their respective new comedies, "Kevin Can Wait" and "Man With a Plan".  I can't say that I'm all that fond of Kevin's new show, but Matt LeBlanc's new project is fairly good.  The jury is still out on Joel McHale's "The Great Outdoors", but I do appreciate the idea of a sitcom poking fun at the millennial generation.



Speaking of which, Survivor's latest season put a tribe of Millennials against a tribe of Gen X'ers to see if stereotypes rang true.  Sadly in most cases, they did.  But highlights of the season include David Wright going from weak writer to strong contender, Michaela Bradshaw being a physical powerhouse, a bonding moment between Zeke Smith and Bret LaBelle, and eventual winner Adam Klein won with all jurors voting for him as the sole survivor.



I think most everyone who enjoys "The Walking Dead" were thinking two things.  One, how brutally Glenn died...and two, how much they despise Negan.  But one thing you can't deny about Jeffrey Dean Morgan who plays Negan - he looks like he's having a lot of fun playing him!



Everything old became new again on ABC - well, at least when it came down to game shows.  ABC revived "The $100,000 Pyramid", "To Tell The Truth", and "Match Game" during the summer months, and they seemed to do very well.  Personally speaking, I thought the Match Game revival with Alec Baldwin was the best of the lot, and I certainly hope it comes back next year.



And ABC wasn't the only network that brought back old shows.  Netflix saw a surge in popularity when they brought on the shows "Fuller House" and "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life".  Both shows were continuations of the shows that originally aired on network television, and both did extremely well.  In the case of "Fuller House", two seasons debuted (one in February, the other in December), and it was recently announced that a third season was going into production!  Oh, Mylanta!



Sadly, Netflix's success spelled doom for the Canadian streaming network Shomi.  Shomi pulled the plug on their two year company in November 2016.  But Crave TV still remains popular with Canadians, largely due to its original programming such as "Letterkenny", as well as having a library of titles that no other streaming service has.



In the world of daytime soap operas, "The Young and the Restless" had a unique milestone take place in September 2016.  They aired their 11,000th episode of the show.  And it was quite a memorable one as the show killed off the complex character of Adam Newman played by Justin Hartley.  



But Justin Hartley has found success after Y&R.  He joined the cast of the new NBC show "This Is Us", which is getting rave reviews.  Perhaps this show could be the new cornerstone of rebuilding the damaged network.  Time will tell.



And since I bring up Y&R, I should also congratulate CBS daytime as a whole.  This year marks the network's 30th consecutive year at #1 during the daytime hours.  To celebrate the milestone, the ladies of "The Talk" brought on cast members from "The Young and the Restless", "The Bold and the Beautiful", "Guiding Light", and "As The World Turns".  Though part of me wonders how awkward it was for the "As The World Turns" cast, given that "The Talk" took over their old time slot in 2010...



"Criminal Minds" suffered a couple of shake-ups to its original cast this year.  Shemar Moore departed from the series in March 2016 - which was his own choice.  Thomas Gibson left the show at the beginning of Season 12 - but unlike Moore, his departure was not his choice.  I guess assaulting a writer on the set would leave the network with no choice but to fire him.  The good news is that Aisha Tyler and Adam Rodriguez have joined the show and are suitable replacements...but no telling on whether that's enough to keep the show on for a thirteenth year.



And speaking of shake-ups, would you believe that people were left wondering if someone could tell them how to find "Sesame Street"?  The long-running PBS mainstay headed over to HBO after forty-seven years on the air (though original episodes are re-aired on PBS).  Not only that, but we saw the departure of Maria, and almost saw Luis, Bob, and Gordon follow suit as a result of the show's move from PBS to HBO.  As of now, there's really no word on whether those plans went through...but come on!  Bob alone is as much a mainstay on Sesame Street as Big Bird!  At least wait until the series turns fifty and then pull the plug.  It's basically been known as Elmo Street since the 1990s anyway.



Billy Bush did NOT have a good 2016.  After a video surfaced of himself and now president-elect Donald Trump making sexual comments towards soap star Arianna Zucker, he was fired from the Today Show.  My question is...why didn't Trump suffer any punishment?  He was just as vulgar as Bush as far as I am concerned.  As much as I'm probably going to anger some Trump supporters here, why the double standard here?  I just don't get it.



Speaking of high-profile departures, the morning show circuit saw some major changes.  The chemistry between Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa fizzled after Strahan jumped ship from "Live With Kelly and Michael" to join the panel of "Good Morning America", and all indications point towards tension between Ripa and Strahan.  We'll never know the full story, but either way, both have seemingly moved on.



And you almost needed a scorecard to keep up with the changes on "The View".  Michelle Collins was fired, Candace Cameron Bure and Raven-Symone quit, and Jedediah Bila, Sunny Hostin, and Sara Haines joined the panel.  Though the show format still remains the same - a bunch of angry women complaining about everything and inevitably getting into a fight with either Joy Behar or Whoopi Goldberg.  Even Barbara Walters was sickened at how horrible the show had become - and she created the damn thing!



"The Simpsons" just won't die.  Since their December 17, 1989 debut as a stand-alone series, it continues to be FOX's main draw.  The 600th episode aired in October 2016, and is just a few episodes away from surpassing "Gunsmoke" as the longest running scripted primetime television series.  Here's hoping in 2017, I will be able to make that announcement as truth instead of speculation.



We also got a chance to revisit the O.J. Simpson murder trial with the FX anthology series "The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story", starring Cuba Gooding Jr., David Schwimmer, and John Travolta amongst others.  The show was a surprise success, and many of its actors are nominated for Emmy Awards!



MTV proved that music videos weren't dead yet.  On August 1, 2016 - the 35th anniversary of the original channel's debut, VH1 Classic became MTV Classic, which brought back 1990s and 2000s MTV programming as well as the music videos which haven't aired on the original MTV in what seems like a decade!

And finally, actress Leah Remini spoke out against Scientology and is telling her story about how she got out in a new series on A&E.  Seriously, check it out.  Not just because she's extremely brave, but because she's essentially proven things about Scientology that many of us on the outside already knew.

Man...2016 was a crazy year in TV...and I have a feeling that 2017 will be much of the same.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

December 27, 1932

Are we ready to look at the final Tuesday Timeline for 2016?  It's been a wild year, let me tell you.  You'll see what I mean when I go over my annual retrospective of 2016 - a year that many of us wish never happened.

But for now, we're taking a break to go back in time even further than 2016!  Let's have a look at what happened throughout history on December the 27th.

1703 - The Methuen Treaty is signed by both England and Portugal

1814 - The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed

1831 - Charles Darwin departs on a journey aboard the HMS Beagle - it would be on this journey that he would craft his "Theory of Evolution"

1836 - Eight people lose their lives when an avalanche occurs in Lewes, Sussex

1845 - Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time

1905 - Actor Cliff Arquette (d. 1974) is born in Toledo, Ohio

1918 - The Great Poland Uprising against Germany begins

1927 - "Show Boat" opens on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre

1935 - In the United States, Regina Jonas is ordained as the first female rabbi

1939 - Over 39,000 lose their lives when a powerful earthquake occurs in eastern Turkey

1945 - The International Monetary Fund is established

1955 - CNN commentator Barbara Olsen (d. 2001) is born in Houston, Texas

1970 - Professional wrestler Joanie "Chyna" Laurer (d. 2016) is born in Rochester, New York

1972 - Former Prime Minister of Canada Lester B. Pearson dies at the age of 75

1975 - Actress Heather O'Rourke (d. 1988) is born in San Diego, California

1978 - After four decades of fascist dictatorship, the country of Spain becomes a democracy

1980 - John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" hits the #1 spot on the charts just three weeks after his death

1981 - Composer/singer Hoagy Carmichael dies at the age of 82

1985 - Palestinian gunmen kill eighteen people in two separate attacks in the airports of Rome, Italy and Vienna, Austria

2001 - China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States

2003 - Sir Alan Bates, CBE, passes away, aged 69

And for celebrity birthdays, the following famous faces are one year older today; John Amos, Mike Pinder, Nolan Richardson, Byron Browne, Cokie Roberts, Roy White, Mick Jones, Janet Street-Porter, Gerard Depardieu, Tovah Feldshuh, David Knopfler, Mandie Fletcher, Maryam d'Abo, Eva LaRue, Savannah Guthrie, Matt Slocum, Emilie De Ravin, and Hayley Williams.

Okay, so what date will we be having a look back at this week?



Oh...December 17, 1932.  That was decades before I was born!  My grandparents were all kids during this time!  That's how long ago it was.

And yet it was the date that one of New York City's most visited landmarks was opened to the public.

Perhaps you might have visited it during the Christmas holidays where the world famous Rockettes demonstrated just how limber they were during their annual Christmas show.  Or, perhaps you went there to watch your favourite artists perform a concert or two.  Maybe you were in that building during one of the times the Daytime Emmys were broadcast and you saw your favourite "Days of our Lives" actor win for Outstanding Supporting Actor.  Or if you're old enough to remember this, you may have even watched a couple of motion pictures at this very spot.

A post that is located in Rockefeller Center, New York.  The precise address being 1260 Avenue of the Americas.



It was on this date eighty-four years ago today that Radio City Music Hall opened its doors to the general public.  And in those eighty-four years, some of the finest entertainment has passed through those doors and have appeared on stage.  Having been declared a landmark by the city of New York in 1978, Radio City Music Hall is considered one of the most visited tourist destinations in all of New York.

When Radio City Music Hall was first developed, its original name was going to be the International Music Hall.  The name was changed to Radio City Music Hall because one of the building's first tenants was the Radio Corporation of America.  The building was a project orchestrated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., RCA chairman David Sarnoff, and Samuel Roxy Rothafel - who had opened up the successful Roxy Theatre two years prior and remained until its closure in the early 1960s.

Radio City Music Hall opened with huge fanfare on December 17, 1932, and the first performers were Doc Rockwell, Martha Graham, and Ray Bolger (whom you might remember played the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz").  And when the venue opened up, its original intent was to put the spotlight on high-class variety entertainment.

Unfortunately, that intent was not executed very well, and not many audiences were too receptive of it.  I wonder if the fact that at the time it opened that America was smack dab in the middle of the Great Depression had anything to do with it?  Whatever the case, something had to be done or else the music hall would close its doors just as fast as they had opened.

The decision was made to move the stage show to Roxy Theatre, and put the attention towards showing motion pictures instead.  The format was changed in early 1933, and it became a huge success over the next four decades.  The very first film screened at Radio City Music Hall was "The Bitter Tea of General Yen", and it soon became the premiere source for screening films from the RKO-Radio Studio.  This format would continue until the 1970s, when the venue found it difficult to secure exclusive bookings for film screenings due to changes in how films were distributed. 

In fact, it was right around that time that Radio City Music Hall was experiencing financial difficulties and it was announced in 1978 that it would close up for good.  You can imagine that announcement didn't sit well with a large number of New Yorkers, and shortly after that announcement was made, the protests started to grow.  John Belushi, Johnny Carson, Rosemary Novellino (who at that time was the dance captain of the venue's ballet company), Lt. Gov. Mary Anne Krupsak, Tom Snyder, and thousands of others lobbied the Rockefeller establishment to save Radio City Music Hall, dubbing it "The Showplace of the Nation". 

The protests lasted a couple of months, but the persistence paid off.  The building was declared a historical landmark, was renovated in 1979, and reopened to the public in 1980 where it has stayed ever since.

Of course, with some notable exceptions, Radio City Music Hall no longer shows motion pictures.  It's more or less a concert and performance hall these days.  And the venue has hosted several awards shows such as the MTV Video Music Awards, the Daytime Emmy Awards, the Grammy Awards, and the Tony Awards.



And perhaps the defining feature of the hall would be the gigantic Wurlitzer pipe organ that has been around since the theatre opened.  Originally built as a way to incorporate music into the silent films that the theatre used to show, it has now become a part of the theatre's history - having undergone a complete restoration in 1999.

How's that for a history lesson to end off the year?

Monday, December 26, 2016

2016 Year In Review - Fads & Trends

All right, so let's not beat around the bush here.

2016 - you sucked.  You sucked BIG TIME.  You sucked so much that I don't even think you know how bad you sucked!  I mean, if we were to look back at the teen years once we enter the year 2020, I would hazard a guess that 2016 would be the person that completely sucks all of the life energy out of the entire room.

And yet here I am - supposed to do a full fledged recap of the year that must never be spoken of again.  I don't know...can I possibly have the guts to revisit a year that many of us don't ever want to see again?

I guess I really have no choice in the matter.  I've done a year in review at the end of each year that I've written this blog. 

But, my goal is to try and find some gems in this cubic zirconium year that we call 2016.  Surely there has to be some positive things to say about this past year, right?

I'm thinking that maybe I should focus on a subject that is lighthearted and fun for the first installment of this look back at 2016.



Yes...I think we need to have a look at the fads and trends that helped define the year 2016.  In some cases, everything old has become new again.  In other trends, we find that splashes of colour can make anything much more delicious.  And some trends should have been forever ditched the same way acid-wash jeans and pet rocks were back in the day.

So, what sorts of things did people go crazy over in 2016?  Let's have a look!



1 - POWERBALL TICKETS

Now, here in Canada, we do not have Powerball.  The closest we have is Lotto 6/49, and as far as I know, we have never had a billion dollar jackpot.  But as 2016 began, that's exactly what the jackpot climbed up to.  And people were buying up tickets to hopefully stake their claim on the cash prize.  In states in which Powerball was not played, many drove for hours to a state that did sell the tickets in order to play.  I even believe that some Canadians tried to get in on the act.  Finally, on January 13, the prize was split by three different winning tickets.  The end prize?  $1.6 BILLION!  That'd buy a lot of lottery tickets!



2 - POKEMON GO

These days, you don't hear too much about this app.  My guess is that it's way too cold in some areas to catch Pokemon now.  But when the Pokemon Go app was released in the summer of 2016, it mesmerized millions of mobile phone users all over the world and inspired them to catch 'em all.  The app used virtual reality that allowed a person to wander their own world in search of Squirtles, Jigglypuffs, and Mewtwos.  Although some locations were questionable (graveyards, private driveways), the game did get people out of the house and kept them active.  Jury's still out on whether it will still be popular in 2017.



3 - CLASSIC MINI NES

Remember back in 1985 when the Nintendo Entertainment System revolutionized the gaming industry?  Well, flash forward thirty-one years later, and Nintendo has relaunched the console in a miniature version one can plug into their televisions with the aid of an HDMI cord.  Thirty games come preloaded onto the machine.  Unfortunately, a supply and demand issue came into play, which caused lots of people to go without one - including this blogger.  But I'm sure that in 2017, more will become available.  At least, I hope so anyway.  And since we're on the subject of toys...



4 - HATCHIMALS

It seems hard to believe that these little eggs would cause so much heartache for many parents and their children.  These guys debuted in toy stores in late 2016, and they have become the most requested toy this year for the holidays.  They're also considered one of the rarest.  Consider the Hatchimal the Tickle-Me Elmo of 2016.



5 - SNAPCHAT FILTERS

I am probably one of the only people in the world who has never used Snapchat.  To be honest, I find it to be a huge turnoff.  But I will admit that some of the photos and screenshots that I have seen of Snapchat filters in use have been quite creative.  I mean where else can you dress up like Santa without donning a beard, or change your voice in a video?  Granted, unless you have screenshots saved, those moments disappear in a few seconds anyway...but still, it is a neat idea.  Well, neat even though it generally makes some of us more narcissistic as a result.



6 - RAINBOW BAGELS

Now, this is one that I had never heard of until now, but apparently these were all the rage in New York.  The popularity of these multi-coloured treats quickly spread across the United States, and now it is one of the food fads that defined the year!  They actually look too beautiful to eat!



7 - PAJAMA SUITS

You know how many people nowadays when they go shopping, they don't even bother to put on jeans?  They just wear pajama bottoms?  Well, somehow some designers capitalized on that trend to bring us pajama suits.  These are actual suits that are designed to look like bedclothes that one can pay a fortune for!  Personally, I think the only thing worse than these were the leisure suits guys in the 1970s wore...but that's merely my opinion.



8 - PEN PINEAPPLE APPLE PEN

In 2013, it was Gangnam Style.  In 2014, it was the Harlem Shake.  In 2015, it was Whip Nae Nae.  And this year, we had Pen Pineapple Apple Pen.  It's one of the stupidest viral video hits that has ever come out of Japan, and yet it somehow made Pikotaro a household name for a few weeks.  It's strange how things become popular, isn't it?



9 - DAMN, DANIEL

This is another trend that I have absolutely no idea why or how it became so popular.  The entire shtick is a guy named Daniel appears on the screen doing a random activity and someone off camera shouts "Damn, Daniel".  That's pretty much it.  Thankfully, you don't hear too much about damn Daniel now.



10 - NASTY WOMAN APPAREL

Finally, we have a trend that is popping up as a direct result of the crazy 2016 American Elections (which you KNOW I'll be discussing at some point in this week long retrospective).  During one of the presidential debates, Donald Trump referred to his competitor Hillary Clinton as a "Nasty Woman", and this set the stage for that phrase to be used in solidarity by millions of women in the United States who were not very pleased with Trump's choice of words.  As a result of this, the "Nasty Woman" slogan appeared on dozens of products including T-shirts, sweatshirts, and pajama pants.  I can only imagine that quite a few are sporting their "nasty woman" apparel right now as they read this.



See also for men: Bad Hombres apparel.

So, that's my list of trends and fads for 2016.  How many of you will admit to following one or more of these?  Although 2016 hasn't been that much fun to get through, I will say this...at least we tried to have fun doing it.

So, tomorrow we take a break for the Tuesday Timeline.  And Friday, we'll have the latest edition of Jem Reviewed.  But here's the tentative schedule for the remainder of the week.

December 27 - TUESDAY TIMELINE
December 28 - 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW - TELEVISION
December 29 - 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW - MOVIES
December 30 - JEM REVIEWED
December 31 - 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW - MUSIC
January 1 - 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW - NEWS & EVENTS
January 2 - 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW - PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

So join me this week as we finally kill off 2016 in style!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

A Christmas Playlist For You!



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  This is the final day of the POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDARDay #25!  Can you believe it?


Now, I know that people are going to be busy with Christmas festivities today, and I myself have quite the day planned.  So, rather than present to you a long text post, I thought I'd just post a playlist of some of my favourite Christmas tunes, courtesy of YouTube.  Enjoy, and have a merry Christmas!

For those of you celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, I hope your celebrations are just as nice!



Saturday, December 24, 2016

Gratitude on the Day Before Christmas



It's Christmas Eve.  Day #24 of the POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR is here, and this time around, I have decided to do something a little bit different.

I'm going to write a bit of a holiday letter to all of my readers.  The ones who have supported me the last five and a half years.

Because honestly, if it wasn't for you reading all of my crazy thoughts and how my mind works, I'd probably have gone nuts a long time ago keeping everything bottled up inside.

In all seriousness though, thank you to all of you who have stuck by me over the last five and a half years.  It's truly been a fantastic ride, and I am honoured to have you in my life.

And to be completely honest, I want to thank all of you for helping me to renew my holiday spirit.  For whatever reasons this year, Christmas 2016 was one that I was dreading.  I honestly couldn't explain why this was the case though.  Normally around the holidays, I get very excited that they are coming.  This year, we even have snow on the ground, which we haven't had the last couple of years.  But yet it still wasn't enough to get me excited about the holidays.

I mean, for one, I'm quite literally the only one in my family that isn't coupled up with someone else, and while that sometimes might not be a bad thing, it does make it a little lonely.  I know people will deny it all they want to, but sometimes I can't help but feel like a fifth wheel of sorts.  Most times whenever we have family get togethers, I just sit in a corner by myself because I don't know how to initiate conversations or even know how to relate to everyone. 

Then again, being the only one in my family that was born in the early 1980s might have a lot to do with that as well.

I suppose not having a family of my own sort of makes me not appreciate Christmas as much as people who do have kids.  People equate Christmas to being a kids holiday that I think when we become adults ourselves, it makes it harder for us to get in the spirit without having kids around. 

Honestly, I'd love to have a litter of kids myself, but biology dictates that I need someone to have them with, as I certainly don't have the anatomy to get pregnant.  Besides, I can't afford to have kids at this time of my life anyway.  But still...part of me wonders if I'm missing out because I don't have that.

So, I guess my feelings for the holidays have been about feeling lonely, and not knowing if what I do even matters.

So imagine my surprise when I randomly check my stats for this blog, and look at what I see.



I don't know what it is about this month that has seen a spike in this blog, but December 2016 is easily my most viewed month...and there's still seven days left to go.  Honestly, my blog has been in a lull lately, and I haven't quite figured out what I was going to do...but seeing so many of you reading my thoughts and sending me nice comments...it gives me the hope that maybe in this crazy world, I am doing something for someone else...and making my mark on this planet.  I think we all have our doubts in whether what we're doing is something that is meaningful or just a waste of time. 

This tells me that I'm still on the right track, and that I still have a lot left to give.  I just want you guys and gals to know how much I love all of you for supporting me and being there for me - even if my mood ranges from surly to splendid at times.

I have one more day in the advent calendar coming up, and then all week long, we'll take a look back at 2016 - whether we want to or not!

As for life in 2017?  The jury's out for now.

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone, and thank you for bring back the holiday spirit for me.  I'll never forget it.

Friday, December 23, 2016

Jem Reviewed: Episode 40 - Alone Again



We're almost at the end of the POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDARDay #23 is here, and it happens to be a Jem Reviewed kind of day!

I only wish the subject matter was appropriate for the holidays...but it is a very special episode.  Come to think of it, all these episodes lately have been special as we learned that Roxy couldn't read last week.

This week, we have a Misfits free show!  Say what?



This is Episode 40: Alone Again.  And the star of this show is the newest girl to join the Starlight Home for Foster Girls!



The thirteenth girl to become one of Jerrica's kids is Laura Holloway.  Her parents died in a car accident a month earlier, and Laura's been feeling depressed ever since.  Laura's social worker seems to believe that all she needs to do is be around other girls her age and she can start to heal.  But Laura's not exactly in the right mood to be friends with anybody.

We see how depressed Laura is when she is taken into the rehearsal studio at Starlight Mansion where Jem and the Holograms are practicing.  Most 14-year-old girls would be over the moon to be staying at the same house that Jem and the Holograms seemingly live in, but Laura's too sad to even think about it.



Jem also notices that Laura is holding a guitar and suggests that Laura have a jam session with them, but Laura tells them that she isn't very good and would rather just be by herself.  I guess losing her entire family four weeks earlier has made Laura very self-conscious.  Jem suggests that Laura go to the rec room to meet the other girls while she changes into finds Jerrica for her.  Laura reluctantly agrees, but she's still feeling down about herself.  Wow, this is turning into a great Christmas episode, huh?



Laura enters the rec room where Ba Nee force feeds Ashley a ping pong ball.  Well, okay, Ashley and Ba Nee are playing ping pong and Ba Nee accidentally hits the ball into Ashley's mouth.  Ashley tries to convince Laura to play a game or two with her, but Laura isn't in the mood.  Mrs. Bailey calls the girls to the dining room for lunch which gives Jerrica the opportunity to introduce herself to Laura. 



But when Jerrica tries to get Laura to open up, Laura bursts into tears, tells Jerrica that she's feeling afraid and inferior.  To Jerrica's credit, she does try to make her feel better but Laura just wants to be alone.

Later on, she grabs her guitar and starts singing a song about how alone she is.  My goodness, Laura is melancholic today.



That said, the song she sings - "Alone Again" is incredibly touching.  It's weird hearing someone else sing a song that isn't a Hologram, Misfit, or named Ba Nee, Krissie, or Ashley.  It's also the first time we hear an acoustic song performed in the show.  Whatever the case, Laura can play the guitar and sing very well.  And as she sings, the Holograms listen in and are happy with what they hear.



In fact, Jem loves Laura's music so much that she offers Laura the chance to sing a song with them on stage at their next concert.  Considering that Laura herself has told them that she thinks she sucks, does Jem really think that putting Laura on stage with the lack of confidence she has is a great idea?  It also doesn't help matters much that Kimber basically guilt trips and tricks Laura into saying yes.

At Laura's school - which apparently has a teeter-totter in the yard - she is stressing out about singing at the concert, and she actually wishes that an earthquake or tidal wave or sharknado will strike and the concert will be cancelled.  Wow, that escalated!  At this point, a teenage boy sits on the other side of the teeter-totter and engages conversation with Laura.  He introduces himself as Bobby Braddock, and he has something that will calm Laura down at the concert. 



It's here that he pulls out...THE PILLS!  Uh-oh!  Laura, remember what they told you in school?  Drugs are bad, m'kay?  You better not take those!  But because Laura is genuinely afraid to perform at the concert, she decides they can't hurt and takes the packet of pills from Bobby.  Oh, Laura, what have you done?

As soon as Laura gets back to Starlight Mansion, she opens up her lunch box, takes a pill, and at first deduces that they are merely a placebo and that they didn't work.



But then Laura sees her lunch box turn into a tropical bird, and she decides that she wants to be a bird too.  It's clear that the drugs that Bobby gave her were laced with some sort of hallucinogen which causes Laura to believe that she sees things that aren't there.



And because Laura believes that she's a bird, she opens up the window to her THIRD STORY BEDROOM, walks out on the ledge, and prepares to take off!  It's a good thing she accidentally kicks a potted plant off the ledge because the crash is enough to alert Jerrica to the danger.



A shocked Jerrica yells at Laura to get off the roof and not to jump, but all Laura can do is tell Jerrica to shut up because she knows that she thinks that she is prettier and more talented than she is.  Man, just what sort of stuff is in those pills anyway?

Jerrica rushes upstairs and charges into Laura's bedroom and tries to pull her back inside, but just as Jerrica reaches the window, the ledge starts to give way, and Laura falls to her death.  The end.



No, wait.  Jerrica grabs Laura as she falls, and manages to pull her back up to safety.  With ONE ARM.  I wonder if Jerrica's been taking some of those pills too!

Once Laura is safe and sound, Jerrica demands to know what happened, and she believes that Laura seemed to not be herself as if she was on something.  But an angry Laura tells Jerrica that she is fine and that she needs to leave her alone.  But we all know that Laura is anything but fine.



Sure enough, Laura immediately confronts Bobby about the pills that she was given, saying that they made her feel weird.  Bobby apologizes and gives her another packet of pills, telling her that these ones will be much better.  Yeah, because the Bobby Braddock Guarantee is written in gold.  Stupidly, Laura gives Bobby another chance after he promises to see her play at the concert, and because Laura has developed a crush on him.  Why is it that depressed young girls always fall for the bad boys?



So, we watch a montage of Laura high on drugs, and she's exhibiting all of the classic signs of a drug abuser.  She's irritable and nervous.  She breaks every dish in the house because she's not able to concentrate.  And she can't sleep very well at all.  In fact, because the drugs that Bobby gave her are distorting her common sense, Laura decides that it will be a wonderful idea to practice her guitar at four in the morning.



Needless to say, when Laura is high as a kite, her playing skills are about the same as they would be if a sober Laura tried playing the guitar after she chopped her hands off with an axe.  Her playing is so bad that it wakes up about half of the Starlight Girls.



Ashley is extremely furious at Laura because she has a history test coming up and she needs her rest.  But when Laura refuses to stop playing, Ashley jumps on top of her and starts beating her up!  Holy hell, is this Jem and the Holograms or a CBS After School Special?!?

Ba Nee starts crying, telling them to stop fighting which awakens Jerrica who breaks up the fight.  Both Ashley and Laura are told to knock it off.



The next morning at breakfast, Laura tries to pass a pitcher of orange juice to Ba Nee, but the drugs have made her a bit shaky and she accidentally drenches Ba Nee in a Tropicana bath!  And when Ba Nee screams at Laura, Laura has a full on meltdown at the breakfast table, telling everyone to stop looking at her.



She runs to her room crying and hysterical and practically tears her room apart looking for more pills.  When she finds the bag underneath a table lamp, she is horrified to learn that she has used all the pills up.



By this time, Jerrica has put two and two together and realizes that Laura has a vurry serious problem and that if Laura lets her, she can help her.  But all Laura does is push Jerrica out of the way and runs out of the house.  All she cares about is getting another hit of drugs from Bobby Braddock.



Too bad Bobby's prices have just gone up.  Laura's first two doses were free of charge.  But now that Bobby sees that she's hooked, he now charges her thirty bucks for another dose of drugs.  And until Laura crosses his palms with the cash, he won't have anything to do with her.  So, basically Bobby's a big jerk, and Laura's a drug addict because of him.  What are we going to do now?



Why, sing a song, of course!  "Nightmare" is a song that we've heard before in Episode 32, but I find this to be a much more effective use of the song.  It packs a bigger punch by showing Laura's dependency on drugs becoming a personal nightmare for her rather than Jem being driven crazy by a bunch of doppelgangers.



And Laura's nightmare continues to worsen when she actually resorts to stealing money out of Jerrica's purse to pay for the drugs!  Jerrica manages to catch her in the act, and this prompts Laura to shove Jerrica against the wall and run away from the mansion.



You can definitely see the toll the drugs have done on Laura's face in this screenshot.  And while I would probably argue that this storyline is being sped up for convenience, I think that for a cartoon it's been telling this story very effectively.



So, Laura is back at school, and she's practically harassing students in the hallways looking for Bobby so that she can give him the stolen cash for some more pills.  On her way to find Bobby, she runs into Ashley who is still pretty sore with her.  Ashley tells Laura that she's a real jerk and to leave her alone before storming off.



Ashley is walking down the stairs when she stumbles and drops her history notebook on the floor, scattering her notes all over the place.  Well, look at that!  Bobby's now hanging around Ashley and is now offering her pills too!  Oh, I get what the sleaze is doing.  He's preying on the insecurities of young people (Laura performing in public, Ashley worrying about her history exam) so that he can bait them into buying his drugs.  What a pig!

At least Laura overheard the whole conversation between Ashley and Bobby, and Laura bursts into tears - not because she was completely wrong about Bobby, but because she was too weak to resist him and his drugs.



Fortunately, Laura still has one ally on her side.  Jerrica comes to the school in search of Laura, and Laura immediately apologizes for taking the money and being a real jerk to everyone.  Jerrica offers to take her for a ride so that they can finally talk about it.

At first, Laura won't say too much - at least until they talk about Bobby Braddock, and Jerrica suggests that Laura enroll in a group session where she can get help for her drug addiction.  Laura seems to think that she doesn't need it, but Jerrica seems to think that it is a good idea.  But Jerrica tells Laura not to do it for Jerrica.  Rather, she should do it because Laura thinks it's the right decision.



Naturally, Laura is defiant when she sits down for her first group session, and she doesn't seem to think that she has a problem.  But one woman in the group won't let her take that attitude and basically coerces Laura to take the first step in admitting that she has a drug problem.  Once she does this, everyone in the group vows to help her overcome it and tell her that they're all been where she is.  It's a short, but effective scene.



Later on at a video arcade, Ashley and Laura are playing a video game when Bobby Braddock the drug kingpin arrives to sell both girls drugs!  Oh, great, so Laura's relapsed and is taking Ashley down with her.



No, wait.  The whole thing is a set-up.  A pair of undercover cops come out and arrest Bobby for selling drugs to minors.  Of course, with Bobby being a minor himself, I guess he'll be back on the streets in no time thanks to things like the Young Offenders Act.  But for now, thanks to Ashley alerting the cops about Bobby selling drugs and Laura agreeing to wear a wiretap, it looks like Bobby won't be back to hurt anyone else.  Sure enough, this is Bobby's last appearance.  Truth be told, this is Laura's only appearance on the show as well.  But at least she patches things up with Ashley before she goes.



And Laura's recovered enough from her drug treatment program to perform with Jem and the Holograms at their concert - which Laura promised to do before she got hooked up with Bobby Braddock.  The difference is that now that she's got friends and is sober, she's really developed this great inner confidence which radiates within her.

Jem announces that the song that they are about to sing was written by Laura, and that song is "Look Inside Yourself", a great song about self-esteem and loving yourself.  It's Jem's version of Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All".



And that wraps up our very special episode of Jem.  I gotta tell you, when I found out that I'd be reviewing this episode two days before Christmas, I was left trying to figure out how I was going to do it.  In the end, I decided to just go with it because the gift of helping someone find sobriety again can be the greatest gift one can give somebody else.  And, well...finding the self-esteem that you thought was gone forever can be the best gift you can give yourself.  Believe me...it's something that I have struggled with practically my whole life.  At least I can proudly say that I never resorted to drug abuse to get through it...not everyone can make that claim.  And in this edition of Jem Trivia, a hotline number was posted at the end of this episode in its original run, which urged teens to seek help if they were under the influence of drugs or knew someone who was.



Next week...Jem opens her own radio station?!?  Yeah, okay, why not?  She's had more jobs than Barbie at this point.  What's one more?