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Doux News: October 12, 2014

Bitchin' Kitchen with Nadia G
This week: In which I express my affection for Nadia G -- In which I express my affection for John Oliver -- In which I express my affection for Continuum -- Renewals and cancellations -- This week in casts -- General TVness with some movieness -- This week in cats

Lots of personal opinion this week, along with the usual tidbits of television news which I shkoff mostly from TV Line.

In which I express my affection for Nadia G

I've recently decided that my new mission in life is to get people who like food shows to at least try watching Nadia G, whose show on The Cooking Channel, Nadia G's Bitchin' Kitchen, has been followed by her travel food show, Bite This with Nadia G.

Nadia G isn't so much a chef; she's a comedian who cooks really well. She writes her own schtick and she makes me laugh, sometimes hysterically. She can also be really offensive, which makes Bite This a little more fun than Bitchin' Kitchen because you can see people reacting to what she says with amusement and confusion, sometimes simultaneously. (I remember Alton Brown instructing the wannabes in Food Network Star to never do the things that Nadia G does in pretty much every episode.)

Nadia G uses the words "shkoff" and "shkiaff" all the time on her shows. It took me a long time to figure out that it was two different words. "Shkoff" is "eat", and "shkiaff", which sounds much the same, appears to mean "slap". Let's use them in a Nadia G. sentence: "Let's shkoff this dish!" "And then you shkiaff these peppers into a pan on medium heat."

Here's a terrific Bite This promo that will give you some idea of what Nadia G does. C'mon. Give her a try. If you don't have access to the Cooking Channel, then sadly, you're excused.




In which I express my affection for John Oliver

I've been watching Last Week Tonight starring John Oliver on HBO for weeks now, and I'm firmly convinced (and I'm aware that this might be sacrilege) that it's better than The Daily Show, and much better than Real Time with Bill Maher. This article on Salon pretty much explains why. The short version is that the segments are longer and contain more and better informed criticism, and there are no guests who are just there to spout their own talking points. For me, I connect to the way John Oliver expresses outrage and passion about the topics that his show covers. Although, like Nadia G, John Oliver can be offensive. Maybe I just like offensive sometimes.

In which I express my affection for Continuum

I fell in love with the TV show Continuum last winter, and have been deeply worried that we won't get a fourth season. We were supposed to hear renewal/cancellation news at the beginning of August, and now it's mid October and there has been no freaking word. Fans of the show have been coming up with every possible explanation for why Showcase still hasn't announced anything. Did they cancel the show but decide to let the clock run out so they won't piss off the fans? Is Monsanto behind it?



There was a tiny hint about what's going on behind the scenes in a recent article about filming in Vancouver. It says in a little aside that was easy to miss, and I quote, "The science-fiction series Continuum, also set in Vancouver, is in limbo as talks proceed on a financial formula to allow it to continue in a fourth season."

LIMBO!  Financial limbo! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'm trying to take comfort in this news. If there is any way at all to let show creator Simon Barry to come up with an ending, I'm for it. Even if it's just a TV movie. Anything.

Renewals and cancellations

-- The fifth season of The Walking Dead hasn't even started yet, but it's already been renewed for a sixth.

-- Extant and Under the Dome were renewed for next summer. Unbelievable.

-- Unforgettable has been canceled. I don't remember why.

This week in casts

-- Buffy alum Nicholas Brendon will be guest starring in the season finale of a show I never watch, Faking It.

-- Buffy and Angel alum Charisma Carpenter will be guest starring on Sons of Anarchy.

-- Lori Petty, who had a fun guest starring role on Orange is the New Black, will be returning to OitNB next season.

-- The Shat himself has "agreed" to appear in the next Star Trek movie. I'm not sure exactly what that means. Has he been offered a part? Is he lobbying for one? Considering what a Star Trek geek I am, I've never been a fan of William Shatner, but I've been impressed about his active tweeting to support struggling science fiction and fantasy shows, for which he takes only contributions to charity. Plus he has the taste to like the strange and wonderful Misha Collins, who plays Castiel on Supernatural.

General TVness with some movieness

-- It was recently reported that a TV series based on the movie Say Anything was in the works. And now it's not, because of the objections of director Cameron Crowe. I'm not emotionally invested -- I think I saw the movie once -- but I know a lot of people love it. So, my sympathies. Or congratulations.

-- There is finally going to be a significant Vampire Diaries/Originals crossover! I don't count anything with Tyler, because I can't stand Tyler.

-- Robert Downey Jr. likes to tease, but this time, I get the feeling there really won't be an Iron Man 4.

-- Unsurprisingly, Stephen Collins' upcoming appearance on Scandal has been quashed, even though it was already filmed.

-- Scott Foley and Greg Grunberg will be writing -- not starring in -- a comedy called To Max & Paige.

-- Yes, there's a music video for the Breaking Bad spinoff, Better Call Saul. It's The Better Call Saul Song.




This week in cats

Okay, I found a good one this week. Bobo Cat, the cat in this video, looks almost exactly like my own cat Fox. But Fox is, unfortunately, terrified by the vacuum cleaner.



Alla prossima!
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

8 comments:

  1. Gotta agree with you, Billie. John Stewart is great, but about 50% of the programs I just skip the interviews.

    John Oliver has been just great. Deliriously funny, perfect critics, and oh god finally being able to hear the fucks!. I'll never understand the American mindset where showing violence and blood is perfectly OK, but the moment someone says the "eff bomb" or a nipple shows onscreen everything goes to hell.

    I hope he gets the audience and the recognition he deserves.

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  2. Hey Billie,

    Twin Peaks is coming back too (in 2016)! It was announced a few days ago :)

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  3. I'm with you and the first anon. I'll watch the interviews when it's someone I care about but more often and not I skip them. John Oliver can be a lot harsher than Jon Stewart. Maybe because HBO doesn't have advertisers they're responsible to like Comedy Central? Plus, I think Last Week Tonight benefits from only producing one a week whereas The Daily Show isn't exactly Daily, but produces a lot more television. I watch both but more and more I find those amazing, I can't believe he just said that, wow that searing clips on Last Week Tonight and not The Daily Show.

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  4. Anonymous the second, we talked about Twin Peaks in the comments in the previous Doux News, so that's my excuse. :)

    http://www.douxreviews.com/2014/10/doux-news-october-5-2014.html

    I used to watch Bill Maher fairly regularly, but there's something about him that turns me off at times. And I love Jon Stewart, but I've never watched The Daily Show regularly. I mostly watch clips online.

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  5. Re: Continuum's fourth season, I'm taking comfort in the fact that talks are continuing and that we got a small snippet of news about it. It was so quiet on that front for so long that I was starting to think the show was just dead. This news gives me a little bit of hope that all is not lost. Maybe we'll get a deal for a fourth and final season? At least then, as you say, we can get a conclusion to the story. Fingers crossed!

    I don't watch John Oliver regularly, but I've enjoyed the bits and pieces I occasionally catch. I agree his passion and anger, and the length of the pieces, are what really makes it work. Even though they sometimes leave me with mental images I can't shake. The bit he did on the warring ads between Mitch McConnell and Alison Grimes was hilarious, but it haunts me whenever I hear real news coverage about them now. Ack.

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  6. Thanks for sharing the news on Continuum, Billie. I'm kind of bummed because Simon Barry has said before he planned at least seven seasons to tell the entire story of Continuum. It's sad they are having trouble to get renewed for a fourth season. And the series just keeps getting better. Come on, Showcase, be a nice corporation and renew Continuum.

    Loved the conspiracy theory on Monsanto. It makes sense. :)

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  7. The Continuum suspense is killing me!!

    Am I the only one who likes Extant?

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