Life in Pieces (2015-?)

Life in Pieces (2015-?)

Network:

CBS

Starring:

Dan Bakkedahl

Holly J. Barrett

Betsy Brandt

James Brolin

Colin Hanks

Zoe Lister Jones

Plot:

A family comedy told through the separate stories of different family members.

Review:

The format of the show is going to take some getting used to, it’s divided up into four stories. Each were fairly funny, with the story from the oldest child’s point of view being the funniest to me.

It was a nice comedy and since I don’t have too many of those on my docket I’ll probably watch it a few more times. There wasn’t anything amazing about it though.

3/5

The Last Ship Season Two

the last ship

The Last Ship Season Two

Network:

TNT

Starring:

Eric Dane

Rhona Mitra

Adam Baldwin

Plot:

The crew of a naval destroyer is forced to confront the reality of a new existence when a pandemic kills off most of the earth’s population.

Review:

So I watched The Last Ship in a weird way. Well not weird, just not how I use to watch shows. I DVR’d all the episodes and only when the season was finished did I watch all of them. I did this with the final season of Falling Skies and I’ve done it the last two years with Supernatural. All my binge watching on Netflix and Amazon has altered how I watch shows.

Anyway, I really like The Last Ship. Like really like it. I was so not expecting this last year when it first aired. I only picked it up because it reminded me of the show Last Resort that was prematurely canceled. It was summer and I had a shortage of TV shows. I’m so glad I did.

This season was better than the last in many ways. I didn’t feel like a ship romance was being forced on me, the characters were better developed, and I feel like the action was better.

So many explosions!

Love the Aussie they picked up. Best fighter.

I really enjoyed the way they did the season finale. You thought it was going to be the fight between the ship and the sub, and that was awesome, but that was just the beginning. Fight wise, that was bigger, but the ending really set it up for the next season and gave you a great reason to come back. I like that.

After being beat down a lot this season, not to the point where you felt hopeless but close, the ending made you believe that they might actually survive this whole ordeal. Don’t get me wrong, they still have a lot of work ahead of them, but this was a major victory in the war.

4/5

Sugar and Iced (Cupcake Bakery Mysteries #6) By: Jenn McKinlay

Sugar and Iced

Sugar and Iced (Cupcake Bakery Mysteries #6) By: Jenn McKinlay

Plot:

Normally Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura wouldn’t be caught dead at a beauty pageant, but when Mel’s mom asks them to provide cupcakes for the seventy-fifth annual Sweet Tiara contest as a favor for her best friend, they can’t say no. Plus, between cooking up a daily display for the three-day event and sponsoring a cupcake creation challenge for the participants, Fairy Tale Cupcakes will get great publicity.

But the world of pageants is even hotter than Mel’s kitchen. A high-strung judge and a pushy stage mom target Lupe, a young friend of Mel and Angie’s, at the competition and aim to take her out—by any means necessary. When the same judge shows up dead underneath Mel and Angie’s cupcake display, Lupe is crowned the lead suspect. Now Mel and Angie will have to find the real killer quickly or Lupe may be strutting the catwalk in prison pinstripes…

Review:

I started reading this almost immediately after the last one and ended up not being in the right frame of mind. I was mad that in the three months since the last book ended the characters hadn’t learned to straighten up and fly right and I was feeling slightly depressed about life in general. By the end of the book I felt so much better.

Things are not perfect with Mel, Angie, and Tate, but they’ve made significant progress. The ending was another relationship cliffhanger and I don’t know how long I’m going to hold out on reading the next book in the series.

McKinlay certainly let you know what she felt about pageant shows and the picture was not pretty. In the last book pretty much all the characters introduced were nice, not so in this one. Honestly I didn’t care who was the killer because they all deserved to get a dose of bad karma.

Happy with the series and I’m really looking forward to the next one.

5/5

 

Fall 2015 TV Shows

So after reading through Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV issue and spending the last few weeks reading up on shows, I’ve finally created my schedule. It’s daunting and I have no idea how people in the Entertainment industry keep up.

Fall 2015 currently has twenty-nine shows that I’ll be watching. TWENTY-NINE. I’m starting to think I have a problem. Maybe. Probably not though.

Anyway, since my TV time is going to be dominated with TV and not movies, I’m going to try something new this fall. Instead of posting movie blogs on Tuesdays and Fridays, I’m going to post about TV episodes. I’ll do my customary Pilot season blog posts, but also post about episodes that I liked. We’ll see how it goes.

For now I’m desperately trying to figure out how I’m going to watch a two year old that doesn’t want to nap, write at least 2k words on my book every day, keep the house relatively clean, and spend some time with my husband every now and then.

First world problems.

Here’s my list of shows, let me know what you guys are looking forward to

Moonbeam City
Doctor Who
Gotham
BBT
Life in Pieces
Minority Report
Castle
NCIS
The Muppets
Limitless
Empire
Modern Family
Heroes
OUAT
B99
Daily Show
SHIELD
The Flash
iZombie
Arrow
Supernatural
Haven
Jane the Virgin
Supergirl
Grimm
The Librarians
Into the Badlands
Man in the High Castle
Jessica Jones

 

Going, Going, Ganache (Cupcake Bakery Mystery #5) By: Jenn McKinlay

Going Going Ganache

Going, Going, Ganache (Cupcake Bakery Mystery #5) By: Jenn McKinlay

Plot:

After a cupcake-flinging fiasco at a photo shoot for a local magazine, Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura agree to make amends by hosting a weeklong corporate boot camp at Fairy Tale Cupcakes.  The idea is the brainchild of billionaire Ian Hannigan, new owner of SWS (Southwest Style), a lifestyle magazine that chronicles the lives of Scottsdale’s rich and famous. He’s assigned his staff to a team-building week of making cupcakes for charity. It’s clear that the staff would rather be doing just about anything other than frosting baked goods. But when the magazine’s creative director is found murdered outside the bakery, Mel and Angie have a new team-building exercise—find the killer before their business goes AWOL.

Review:

So happy to be able to continue this series. By the end of the first chapter I was craving cupcakes and it didn’t get any better. I love Mel, Angie, and Tate, but I think Marty is my favorite. He’s part grouchy old man and wise old sage. He was easily my favorite in this book.

Now, onto what I didn’t like. This was easily the weakest book in the series so far. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book, just not my favorite. The love triangle I was afraid was happening two books ago reared its ugly head in this book big time. I hate love triangles so freaking much. I feel like it’s an easy way to create drama and it makes the relationship the lead ends up with seem less somehow. Well it makes it feel less when the lead seriously thinks about dropping her original squeeze for the next. Mel’s reasoning for what she ends up doing is weak and makes me doubt her.

Angie and Tate’s relationship is finally making some progress but it’s still going at a snail’s pace.

I’m hoping for more progress in relationships in the next book and a resolution on the love triangle.

4/5