Reviews and More

Reviews of movies, TV shows, books, products, websites, and a whole lot more!

December 3rd, 2007

“Danny Roane” DVD Winner

Last week I posted about my latest contest, which was a Danny Roane: First-Time Director DVD giveaway. The contest is now closed, and the DVD will be going to Holly P. of Ohio. Holly has a blog called JustSimplyHolly, so be sure to check out her site and pass on your congratulations!

Look for more cool giveaways in the near future!!

danny-roane_title.jpg

December 3rd, 2007

Christmas Wishes

Christmas in my household has always been a time for wishes and dreams, and this year is no different. Even though money is pretty tight these days, it’s still fun to imagine getting a completely extravagant item that I would never buy for myself in a million years. So when I heard about Overstock.com’s All I want for Christmas Giveaway, I knew that I just had to enter!

The All I Want for Christmas Giveaway begins today, December 3, 2007, and runs until Friday, December 7. For those five days, you can enter to win any product from the Overstock.com website, valued up to $1,000. All you have to do to win is register with the site (you just need a valid email address), select the gift that you would most like to receive, and use the “Email a Friend” option on the product page to submit your entry to the contest. Here’s a quick commercial that you can check out for more info:

satchel.jpg I entered today, and chose this Prada satchel as the gift I’d most like to win. This is a beautiful bag that I would use as a briefcase for those occasions when I go out to meet with clients. Even with Overstock.com’s 33% discount, this satchel costs $999.99 — a price that’s way, way out of my budget. But as I said above, Christmas is about fanciful wishes, so I decided to aim high with this one.

You can also refer up to five friends for this giveaway, which I think is a neat idea. I’m choosing Jackie, Amber, Robin, Jerry, and Michelle, and hope that they return the favor when they enter the giveaway!Overstock.com is allowing everyone to enter once per day during the contest period, so I better get back to the site to look for more gifts that I’d like to win. Be sure to check out this contest for yourself, because the range of prizes is pretty amazing!

December 3rd, 2007

Desperate Housewives 4×09

dh-logo1.jpg Last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives was called “Something’s Coming”, and all of the storylines centered around a tornado that passed right down the center of Wisteria Lane. There was a lot of buildup to the disaster, so I was hoping there would be a decent payoff at the end of the ep. And surprisingly enough, there was! (Maybe.)

Carlos/Gabby/Edie/Victor: Now that they know Victor is alive and will likely make their lives hell, Carlos and Gabby decide they’d be better off leaving Fairview — at least for a while. So Carlos goes off to make arrangements while Gabby stays home to pack. Before leaving, Carlos tells Gabby to expect his accountant to stop by with paperwork regarding his Cayman Islands account.

Meanwhile, Edie hears from a neighborhood boy that Gabby is packing to leave. She goes over to the Solis household just in time to intercept Al the accountant, who mistakes her for Gabby. The winds were really picking up by that point, so Al just assumes Edie is Gabby, hands over the papers, and leaves. Gabby sees the end of this exchange, and runs out of the house after Edie.

The two women end up in Edie’s house, where they fight over the papers. Gabby snatches the file away, but only gets as far as the front yard before the fierce winds blow the papers away. She and Edie then race back into the house, and hide in Edie’s crawlspace to wait out the tornado. They talk a lot, eventually deciding to forgive each other.

Later on, Carlos has a run-in with Victor, who was waiting for them in Gabby’s house. Victor is in a murderous mood, and doesn’t take long to start firing his handgun at Carlos. Their fight spills out into the street, where the tornado is already blowing stuff around. Victor ends up getting impaled right through the chest with a picket from a fence, and Carlos gets knocked out by some flying debris.

Mike/Susan: Susan replaces Mike’s pills with a note that says, “See me.” He complies, and she confronts him about his continued drug use. Mike tries to justify his actions, saying that he goes to work every day and pays off his bills on time, so why not enjoy a high every now and then? Susan’s doesn’t buy it, and refuses to give Mike his pills. He gets angry and grabs her while she’s walking down the stairs, causing her to fall all the way down.

At the emergency room, a jonesing Mike goes crazy because Susan has to wait while the medical staff attends to bleeding patients. He punches a nurse, and ends up being handcuffed to a chair by security. Susan takes that opportunity to give Mike an ultimatum: either he goes to drug rehab immediately, or she’ll take the baby and leave him. He agrees to get help.

Bree/Katherine/Adam/Orson/Sylvia: Adam’s stalker shows up again, this time getting into a confrontation with Katherine out on the street. Bree witnesses this, and after Katherine just blows her off, she goes to Sylvia for an explanation. Sylvia is only too happy to tell her side of the story, which is that she and Adam had an affair and were in love.

While talking to Bree, something sets Sylvia off, so she locks herself in the bathroom that Bree was planning to use as a tornado shelter. Bree then has to go get Adam and Katherine to come in, with Orson arriving later. As they all sit in a closet, Katherine tells Bree that Sylvia sued Adam for sexual assault, which is how they lost everything in Chicago. But then Bree says that Sylvia mentioned something about a tattoo on Adam’s shoulder, which is when Katherine realizes that the woman’s story was true. Too bad Sylvia gets sucked up by the tornado in the end!

Scavos/McCluskey: Lynette nags Mrs. McCluskey into letting the Scavos take shelter in her basement. Ida is there as well, and she has her cat with her. Problem is, Tom is deathly allergic to cats. Lynette asks Ida to put the cat upstairs, but she refuses and Mrs. McCluskey backs her up. Mrs. McCluskey then catches Lynette trying to sneak the cat out herself. They end up chasing the cat outside, getting caught in the tornado, and running into Lynette’s bathroom for shelter. When they emerge after the storm passes, they see that Mrs. McCluskey’s house was completely leveled.

My Reaction: Wow, I really need to work on my summarizing skills here, as this recap is far too long! I’m going to keep my reaction to a minimum to try to balance things out: I thought this episode was pretty good — if the writers actually follow through and have the apparent deaths stick. It would be daring for them to allow the entire Scavo clan (save for Lynette) to perish in the tornado, but I have a feeling that we’ll see them rescued from under the rubble.

Wasn’t surprised to see Victor go; it was his time. I hope that Carlos is ok though. Also? I couldn’t possibly care less about Mike and Susan right now. Ugh.

So the big Mayfair scandal was that Adam got sued for sexual assault? That can’t be there is to it, otherwise everything about Dylan, her memories, and the questions about her childhood just wouldn’t make sense.

No new eps until after the writers’ strike is resolved, so let’s see how this plays out!

|