TV Tryouts: Elementary, 666 Park Avenue

In my last post I mentioned that I planned to try these two shows, and so I have. But first, I tried "Partners" again. I couldn't DVR it because I was recording "Bones" while watching baseball, so I figured I could watch it On Demand. Except, oddly enough, it wasn't one of the shows CBS offered On Demand. So I had to watch it online. I went to CBS.com and, well, I lasted through the first scene after the first commercial break. Sorry, Michael Urie, I love you but this show sucks. (By the way, CBS.com, if you're going to show commercials and not allow us to click past them, at least show three different commercials and not the same stupid Macy's commercial showing people like Martha Stewart and Justin Bieber working in the store THREE TIMES IN A ROW.)

Now then...I might have enjoyed "Elementary" a little more if the Sherlock Holmes character wasn't named Sherlock Holmes. Unlike the BBC "Sherlock," which took great care in bringing the characters into the present day, "Elementary" just makes changes for the sake of change. Look, Holmes lives in New York now! Look, Watson is a woman now! And so on. The rest of it is just a standard crime procedural show without fancy CSI graphics. Despite the charms of Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as Holmes and Watson, I won't be tuning in again. (By the way, are Miller's tattoos real or are they just for the show?)

As for "666 Park Avenue," I just found it boring. A show starring Vanessa Williams should never be boring. And her character is boring, at least so far.

Our lesson so far: the new shows I've sampled are all failures.

My TV Schedule (And Two Gay Nays)

In the past I've talked about how I decide whether or not to watch a new TV show -- basically, I need something to pique my interest in it, or else I just happen to watch on a whim. So with the new fall TV season under way, I thought I'd update you on what I'm currently watching (or considering watching, or tried to watch). There have been a few changes in my schedule.

SUNDAY: I've still got "The Simpsons" (which, let's face it, at this point I'll never stop watching) and "Family Guy" (which I can't quite get rid of). With "Desperate Housewives" gone, though, I don't have another Sunday night show. I'm considering trying "666 Park Avenue," only because Vanessa Williams moved from Wisteria Lane to this address. Apparently (as you can guess from the number) there are devilish doings going on. I'll try it.

MONDAY: It used to be a quiet night until Fox moved "Bones" here. I also sampled the debut of "Partners," one of the two new shows with heavy gay content. It co-stars Michael Urie, one of my faves from "Ugly Betty," which is why I watched it. Urie's character is gay and his best friend (played by David Krumholtz) is straight. Their significant others are Brandon "I'm no longer Superman" Routh and Sophia Bush, respectively. I may watch another episode because I really like Urie, but I think they'd be better off if they ditched the truly dull Krumholtz and Routh entirely, and maybe Bush as well.

TUESDAY: At least "Partners" isn't the other big gay sitcom, "The New Normal."

Ew York

Since I'm up late I decided to post the pictures I took when I went to New York for a weekend in early March. EDIT TO UPDATE: I posted them to Shutterfly and hoped to have a slideshow embedded into this post but using the code they provided, no slideshow appears. So just click on this link.

The main purposes for the trip: my friend Kurt was auditioning for The Voice on the Saturday of that weekend, so while he auditioned I went to see "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

The trip wasn't exactly a success. It wasn't horrible, but there were a number of problems throughout. It started with Megabus. (That's their sign at left -- hence the title of this post.) We were supposed to leave at 5:30 pm but the bus was quite late -- an hour, at least, as I remember. We stood out in the chilly air and watched while at least two competing buses (Bolt Bus, which is actually owned by Greyhound) arrived, picked up passengers for New York, and went on their way. Once we finally got on our way, the wi-fi on the bus was wonky.

We finally got to our small hotel, which was in Chinatown, and were told that because a regular room wasn't ready that we would get the "penthouse." The elevator doesn't go to the penthouse without your room keycard to unlock it. Our key didn't work. After the staff couldn't get it to work, they decided to put us in a first-floor room for one night. It was freezing with no heat. We went back to the desk, and after another wait  someone got the key to unlock the elevator button for the "penthouse." The elevator opened right up into the room -- there were no other rooms on the floor. It wasn't exactly luxurious but it was larger than a typical room. It also had a fuse box and some other electrical switches and an emergency phone for the fire department and a door to the roof of the building. I had images of maintenance men traipsing through our room or worse. (I took a video; if I get around to posting it I'll update this.