First Thoughts On The ONE LIFE TO LIVE Premiere, Spoilers Free

On Tuesday night the cast and crew of ALL MY CHILDREN and ONE LIFE TO LIVE, Prospect Park's Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz, a massive amount of press and a group of loyal fans packed NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts to watch the premiere episodes of the shows, which return Monday, April 29. We won't reveal any spoilers (and we really hope no one else does either!) but wanted to share some first thoughts after seeing the shows on the big screen. Here are some thoughts on ONE LIFE TO LIVE:

First Thoughts On The 'All My Children' Premiere, Spoilers Free

On Tuesday night the cast and crew of All My Children and One Life to Live, Prospect Park's Rich Frank and Jeff Kwatinetz, a massive amount of press and a group of loyal fans packed NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts to watch the premiere episodes of the shows, which return Monday, April 29. We won't reveal any spoilers (and we really hope no one else does either!) but wanted to share some first thoughts after seeing the shows on the big screen. Here are some thoughts on All My Children:

DALLAS Season 1 Finale Review: It Was Excellent 'From Tip To Tail'

The first season of TNT's DALLAS came to a close on Wednesday night with shocking revelations and a number of unexpected twists and turns.

If you haven't watched the episode yet, be warned there are SPOILERS ahead.

YEAR OF THE SOAP: Kevin Mulcahy Jr. Reviews Two-Hour DALLAS Premiere and Critiques the Critic

Photo Credit: Mark Seliger

With hours still to go before the most-anticipated series premiere of this Year of the Soap, everyone is already talking about the second coming of DALLAS. After forcing me to chloroform myself and climb into the back of their van (oh wait - that wasn't me - that was Emily in REVENGE!) the DALLAS folks kindly let me watch the two-hour premiere in advance (and commercial free). I do, however, have to let you all know this: I was selected to participate in TNT's Dallas Roundup Network. I was not compensated for writing this post, but have received a screener of the first two episodes.

They're taking this rollout very, very seriously, and actually I think their outreach to critics and to the general public (if you haven't signed up for the Rise to Power game yet, what are you waiting for?) has been a great model for others interested in boosting the 2012 appeal of  serial dramas everywhere.

PREVIEW: TNT's DALLAS Hits The Mark; Two-Hour Premiere Tonight!

Photo Credit: Mark Seliger

TNT's new DALLAS premieres tonight with two back-to-back episodes. Having been a huge fan of the original series, and being worried over the years when some ridiculous movie remake ideas were tossed out, I was thrilled to see what Cynthia Cidre created for TNT. The new DALLAS is a mix of old generation and new centered around the rivalry between the ruthless John Ross (Josh Henderson) and his cousin Christopher (Jesse Metcalfe).

OPINION: 90210's Annie (Shenae Grimes), Liam (Matt Lanter), And Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) Are Hanging On A (MidSeason) Cliff!

I have to apologize for being a slacker and not writing about last week's episode.  My life has been a little crazy.  No, I'm not freshly out of rehab and collaborating with a drummer who is still using drugs like Dixon (Tristan Wilds).  Nor am I fighting Sally Kellerman's ungrateful punk of a grandson for an inheritance that is rightfully mine like Annie (Shenae Grimes).  Nor have I become a fashion designer overnight only to have my nemesis also become a designer overnight and steal my designs like Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord).  I also didn't move to DC with my new boyfriend after finally making peace with the fact that my family hates me but my best friend never meant to backstab me like Teddy (Trevor Donovan).  Oh wait, I guess my life isn't all that crazy after all!  Maybe that's because my zip code is not the zipcode for nonstop insanity.

OPINION: 90210 Smoked Turkey and Ravy (AKA Raj & Ivy's Last Holiday)

I watched 90210's Thanksgiving episode, "Smoked Turkey" last week and I wanted to make sure I had a moment to write a little something something about it before this week's episode airs.

I don't know if Ivy (Gillian Zinser) and Raj (Manish Dayal) have an official smoosh name.  Ivaj?  Ravy?  I don't know, but if Ravy is a thing, then I've made no secret that I'm a big fan of theirs.  That's why it's pretty sucky for me to watch them deteriorate as a couple.  (Though, I admit, the boy waiting in the wings for Ivy's heart is pretty cute too!)  At the start of this episode, it looks like Ivy basically hates Raj now that he's not going to die.  Not cool Ivy Sullivan, not cool at all.  And why didn't you take Raj's last name anyway?

OPINION: 90210 Hits It Out Of The Park As Escort Annie Finally Turns Her First Trick To Pay For Dixon's Rehab!

This week's 90210 was the best episode they've had all season!  Extraneous stories were minimized or not included at all and some stories that have been slowly chugging uphill all season finally came to a head and will hopefully move full steam ahead from here.

Take Annie (Shenae Grimes) and Dixon (Tristan Wilds).  The Wilsons are definitely not in Kansas anymore...  Annie is trying to help Dixon with his drug habit, but the only way she knows how to raise the money he needs for rehab is to have sex with Patrick (Chris McKenna), who is no longer her boyfriend after she caught him in the arms of another escort in Las Vegas.

OPINION: 90210 Goes To Vegas, JERSEY SHORE (Vinny), Billy Ray Cyrus, Brandy Come to Them, Teddy Marries Shane, Adrianna Saves Dixon?

This week our 90210 faves headed to Sin City.  Liam (Matt Lanter) is now an overnight celebrity after allowing his shirtless modeling gig to use his face.  JERSEY SHORE guest star Vinny gets Liam involved in a high stakes poker game with a high buy-in.  Liam's got all this modeling moolah so he figures why not.  Liam does really badly and frets that he will lose his bar and everything else.  Ok, but two weeks ago, Liam didn't have the money for the bar either and last week when he reluctantly started modeling he got the money and apparently quite a lot of it because he loses $80,000 at the poker table.

OPINION: Dear Writers & Producers of the CW's 90210

Dear Writers & Producers of the CW's 90210:  Forget about 90's '201 if you must, but my goodness, please remember and use the history and character development from last week's episode, and the week before, and the week before that!!

I don't know why I love 90210.  I knew the original series, but I certainly wasn't a fanatic.  If I was, maybe I would be less likely to stomach the new series.  But I love a good TV franchise and I was happy to see old 90 connected to new 90 when the new 90210 was launched.  We saw Kelly, Brenda and Donna.  And Kelly and Silver's mom Jackie (Ann Gillespie) of course was prominently featured until she lost her battle with cancer.  That storyline was so much more moving for people who saw Ann Gillespie play Jackie Taylor twenty years ago.

OPINION: DIRTY SOAP Loses Some Steam This Week!

Family and the role they sometimes play in relationships is where this week's episode of DIRTY SOAP found its focus. I have to admit that I found this week's episode disappointing after last week's stellar but sad hour. There wasn't anything particularly wrong with it but I wasn't all that riveted while watching. I even thought to myself...am I watching this out of some sort of obligation? I'm not saying that they should capitalize on Kirsten's illness but there have got to be more interesting things happening in the lives of the other cast members.

OPINION: A Heatwave Hits HART OF DIXIE On And Off The Screen Thanks to Wilson Bethel

There almost aren't words for this week's episode of HART OF DIXIE. A heatwave was running through Bluebell. The heat makes people do a lot of very funny things. Relationships were being tested left and right. People were on the brink of making one mistake after another but none of these plot twists compares to the most epic portion of this episode: Wade as played by the god damn how he is so hot Wilson Bethel was shirtless for nearly the entire episode.

OPINION: Penn Badgley's Dan Takes Center Stage In One Of GOSSIP GIRL's Best Episodes Ever

If I were to rank this week's GOSSIP GIRL in terms of my favorite episode, it would one hundred percent make it into the top three. It did exactly what I love: focus on the core characters in large group scenes that plays off their history with one another. It also set up major drama that is going to play out for episodes to come. You know that they are doing something right when I'm even interested in anything that Chuck and Nate are involved in. It seems that they are really thinking about what they are doing and plotting everything very intricately so that plots have lives of their own but also intersect in interesting and unexpected ways. Dan Humphrey and his novel are in the dead center of this year's tale and I am LOVING every minute of it. 

OPINION: How Annie Got Her Groove Back? Has 90210 Finally Realized How Best To Feature Shenae Grimes?

Remember a few weeks ago, where I spelled out the formula that 90210 seems to follow each season? It went something like this: begin by adding a hand full of new and mostly static characters and overdose us with the exposition on what has taken all of our regular characters from where they were when last we saw them to an entirely different place, then slowly but certainly weave everything together and make magic with the new set up they've created. Well, the weeks of exposition and suffering through new, underdeveloped characters are over and 90210 is sailing onward and upward full steam ahead!

OPINION: All of Our DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Stand Alone This Week

This week's episode of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES was very enjoyable in spite of the fact they once again did the thing that I hate with a passion: separate all of our leading ladies into island story lines (with the exception of Renee who was nothing more then a small appendage to Lynette's tale and a brief blip in Bree's).

OPINION: DIRTY SOAP's Farah and Jenna Show New And Wonderful Sides To Themselves

DIRTY SOAP didn't have that overt theme jumping out that it had over the past couple of weeks but I picked up on my own theme. 

We have come to know these soap stars in very specific roles on this show but things aren't always so cut and dried. Given that I tend to have very strong feelings for both Jenna Gering and Farah Fath, it is obvious that these are the two people I'm starting to re-evaluate in light of events on last night's episode. I didn't realize that I was going to have some shifts in my opinion at the beginning of this episode. 

OPINION: Emily Van Camp Continues to Shine in REVENGE As Character Development Is Amped Up!

REVENGE took a bit of a turn for me this week...in a good way. There was both a procedural element and a level of ease to Emily's takedowns that was starting to become a bit repetitive. This week both of those elements were still in play but the focus seemed to shift from Emily's act of taking the revenge to the effects this particular revenge had on the major players that we are learning about and Emily's ultimate plan to take down Victoria. The stories that have been put into place are starting to ramp up and now that we are four weeks in I am invested enough in these characters that I am eager to learn more about what is going on. 

OPINION: Worming My Way into HART OF DIXIE, Rachel Bilson (THE O.C. alum Rachel Bilson) & Wade Kinsella (YOUNG & RESTLESS alum Wilson Bethel)

In light of HART OF DIXIE's full season pickup, I'm particularly happy to write about it this week. Watching this episode something just clicked for me with the show. I'm on board with HART OF DIXIE. They aren't doing anything different so I can't necessarily pinpoint what it is that made me jump on team Zoe. I was watching on Monday and I thought to myself..."I'm kind of digging this show right now." And now we have a whole season to watch it unfold.

That's not to say I didn't have my quibbles. I will always have my quibbles but for the most part I'm entering into squeal of delight territory. Part of the problem may have been me looking at Rachel Bilson as Summer Roberts from the OC. Letting go of that idea, a typecasting frame of mind I don't normally enter into, probably helped me embrace the show more fully.  Let's take a peek at the goings on in Bluebell, Alabama this week!

OPINION: The Zip Code's On Fire! AnnaLynne McCord's Naomi Stuck Between The Nerd & The Cowboy on 90210!

Whether you like it or not… here comes my opinion on last night’s 90210. 

First of all, we have Zombie Jim, who apparently was lost at sea, but is alive.  He tells Adriana (Jessica Lowndes) he isn’t going to bother his wife Jane (Kristina Agpar) and Liam (Matt Lanter) after learning they are in love, but then he reveals himself to them before the opening credits.  Jane and Liam don’t seem very surprised that Jim is still alive and they also don’t seem very happy about it at all.  I mean, I know he’s an obstacle for your budding romance, but he’s also your dead husband/best friend and he’s ALIVE!  Can somebody have a reaction?  This storyline is playing out to be very lame.

OPINION: GOSSIP GIRL Is As Good As It Has Ever Been

Serena returned to the Big Apple on this week's GOSSIP GIRL. I found myself loving just about everything in this episode. It didn't hurt that one of GOSSIP GIRL's many New York nightlife events brought all of our favorite characters together, with the notable exception of Serena who was absent for most of the hour, to have their respective crises blow up in their faces.

A week where I'm loving just about everything that is happening in this upper east side world is a good week indeed. Let's jump right in and see what trouble Blair and company are finding themselves in this week. Take note that I said Blair and company because to me Blair is the focal point of this show. I know that everyone loves Serena but in my heart Blair is where it's at. Plus, regardless where you stand on the Blair vs. Serena battle, Blair is the clear romantic lead of this show right now with three different men harboring feelings for her. Serena currently has no one harboring feelings for her. Hmmm...paging a love interest for Serena.