Things Mo Loves This Year

Ya ya, it's been awhile. Like always. Typical. Anyway, here are a few of Mo's favorite things of the 2009 fall/holiday season.

Twitter

Obviously Curly and I aren't the most prolific bloggers. We're just not commitment people (obviously). That is not to say we are not grateful for our small but devoted fan base, and because of such we've created a Young and Tactless Twitter feed. If you aren't on Twitter, get with the program. Now that your parents have invaded Facebook, Twitter is the place to be and be seen. Follow us @youngntactless !

TiVo HD

Let's not even discuss it. Your Dish DVR/Comcast OnDemand will never live up to TiVo. I am coming up on my one year anniversary with my TiVo HD and here is why you should upgrade:

• Dual HD tuners (record 2 shows in HD while playing back another, SO useful for Thursday nights). Ya some generic DVR's do this, but I don't care. TiVo does it best.
• Netflix streaming: Got a Netflix membership? You better 'cause its vastly classier than Redbox. Anyway, stream any Play Instantly movie from Netflix through your TiVo to the TV. Note: sound quality is vastly improved if you have surround sound.
• Tons and tons of storage space, and if you need more you can get the XL or an external expander drive.
• It looks like technological sex.

Instant Handbrake

For making those "backup copies" (which are legal) of DVD's on your Mac. Gotta back up those collections folks. We would just never recommend pirating DVD's in this manner, even though it would be extremely easy and be custom made to create iPod compatible copies. Maybe it works on Windows. I don't know and I don't care.

Breaking Up

Not with your significant other (we're too codependent for that anyway), but with TV shows that should have been let out to pasture. This season's victims include Grey's Anatomy (which should have gone away last season), Ugly Betty, Gossip Girl and Survivor. Technically I gave up Survivor years ago, but if you are still watching it you should too. COME ON FOLKS. It was a laugh 5 years ago. Now it's like a template that they keep refilling with new characters. And as for Gossip Girl, Curly and I say if they bring back writing that doesn't make us cringe and add more of the Chuck Bass man love, we'll be back.

New MacBooks

Just had to throw this in for Curly's sake as she is patiently waiting for money from heaven to buy her a new MacBook. Seriously people, the new white ones are a DEAL! $949 with your student discount. Shocking.

The light(s) at the end of the spring finale-tunnel

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Summer is coming, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

Here it is, folks, the Late Spring/Summer 2009 premiere schedule (as cobbled together by me). A bit early? Maybe. But it's good to get an early start on this very long list, packed with new and returning reality shows-- big surprise-- and some new original series' that hopefully live up to (some...any) expectations. FYI, dates are subject to change, as many of these have before now. Hopefully there's something for everyone to love, hate and look forward to, so enjoy!

Entourage (HBO) – Date unknown
Leader of the Pack (HGTV) – April 26^th
Daisy of Love (VH1) – April 26^th
Pros vs. Joes (Spike), returning, Season 4 – April 27^th
Ashes to Ashes (BBCA), returning, Series 2 – May 2^nd (Sequel to British series Life on Mars, inspiration for the recently-cancelled remake on ABC)
Hidden Potential (HGTV), returning, Season 9 – May 3^rd
The IFC Project (IFC), returning, Season 2 – May 3^rd
New York Goes to Work (VH1) – May 4^th (No, New York isn’t done invading reality TV yet)
Gotti’s Way (VH1), returning, Season 2 – May 4^th
Apprentice UK (BBCA) – May 5^th
Ugly Betty (ABC), returning from hiatus – May 7^th
The Fashion Show (Bravo) – May 7^th
Charm School (VH1), returning, Season 3 – May 11^th
Real Housewives of New Jersey (Bravo) – May 12^th
Hotel Babylon (BBCA), returning, Season 3 – May 15^th
Beverly Hills Groomer (Animal Planet) – May 16^th
Brooke Knows Best (VH1), returning, Season 2 – May 17^th
The Bachelorette (ABC), returning, Season 5 – May 18^th
Glee (FOX) – May 19^th
So You Think You Can Dance (FOX), returning, Season 4 – May 21^st
Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? (FOX), returning – May 22^nd
Don’t Forget the Lyrics (FOX), returning from hiatus – May 22^nd
Diamonds (ABC miniseries) – May 24^th and 26^th
Here Comes the Newlyweds (ABC), returning, Season 2 – May 25^th
Jon and Kate Plus 8 (TLC), returning, Season 5 – May 25^th
Opportunity Knocks (ABC), returning from hiatus, final episodes – May 26^th
Hitched or Ditched (CW) – May 26^th (Boy does this sound like quality programming)
The Goode Family, animated (ABC) – May 27^th
Wipeout, returning (ABC) – May 27^th
The Nine (DirecTV – The 101 Network) – The Nine (Previously aired on ABC, running only one season)
Mental (FOX) – May 29^th
Pushing Daisies, returning from hiatus, final episodes (ABC) – May 30^th
Hung (HBO) – June (?)
Conan O’Brien takes over The Tonight Show (NBC) – June 1^st
I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! (NBC) – June 1^st
The Listener (NBC) – June 4^th
Army Wives (Lifetime), returning, Season 4 – June 7^th
Next Food Network Star (FOOD), returning, Season (?) – June 7^th
Meteor (NBC Miniseries) – June 7^th and 14^th
Weeds (Showtime), returning – June 8^th
Nurse Jackie (Showtime) – June 8^th
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, returning (Bravo) – June 8^th [Yay!!]
Top Chef Masters (Bravo) – June 10^th
True Blood (HBO), returning – June 14^th
NY Prep (Bravo) – June 16^th
Eli Stone (ABC), returning from hiatus, final episodes – June 20^th
Merlin (NBC) – June 21^st
Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABC Family), returning, Season 2 – June 22^nd
Make It or Break It (ABC Family) – June 22^nd
America’s Got Talent (NBC), returning, Season 4 – June 23^rd
The Superstars (ABC) – June 23^rd
The Philanthropist (NBC) – June 24^th
The Great American Road Trip (NBC) – July 1^st
Blonde Charity Mafia (CW) – July 7^th
I Survived a Japanese Game Show (ABC) – July 8^th
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC), returning from hiatus, final episodes – July 18^th
The Storm (NBC Miniseries) – July 19^th and 26^th
Dating in the Dark (ABC) – July 20^th
Hell’s Kitchen (FOX), returning, Season 6 – July 21^st
More to Love (FOX) – July 28^th
Project Runway (Lifetime), returning – August 20th

Note from Mo: VERY excited about RHW of NJ. Promises to be a train wreck of epic proportions. Not so much about Ugly Betty. Can somebody put her out to pasture already? That's not to say I'm giving up on her. Learned my lesson there (ER anybody?).

Also, for the uninitiated, Charm School with MO-NIQUE! (yes, all of that is necessary emphasis) is perfect guilty-pleasure afternoon fare. Settle down with some microwave chicken fries and enjoy.

Reality Roundup

Time for another installment of delicious reality TV!

This week's Real Housewives was just fabulous. Truly. Where to begin...

Gina moved her daughter Cara back to Berkeley this week and on the drive up from the O.C. learned that cows smell bad. See people? Life lessons are taught in travel. While up in the great smelly north, the girls went on a mom-daughter tour of the "zoo" as Gina referred to it. To you and me, the park filled with bums. Heartwarming stuff here. Put aside all the elitist crap, and Gina is actually a decent mother. Her son Colton was as nice and helpful to her with her first foray into dating as her other son Shane is an ass. 

Vicky went on a cruise for her life coaching service, Life with Vicky. I'm pretty sure its a cult. Later, she climbs the rock wall on the ship "for success!" You can't write this stuff. 

This week Gretchen is a gold-digging whore. Perhaps I should set up a Twitter to update when she vacillates between devoted wife and GDW. Anyway, she shipped Jeff back off to the hospital for a bit of reanimation and set off for Dallas for a girls weekend with her college pals. Inane conversation abounds and the jaw-dropping moment of the show: Gretchen thinks that Jeff can and will get her pregnant.

Tamra goes to Cedar Rapids for the long-awaited reunion with her dad. Don't feel bad here folks, I didn't know where Cedar Rapids was either. Turns out its Iowa. In the process she has her first experience with an American automobile as well as with a crack house. The show said it was flood damaged, but I've been around the block once or twice. Nice try Bravo. Creepy son flirts with old and distant relative at faux-Benihana. Yum. Later, Tamra hashes out long-standing family issues with her father on a cement island in what appeared to be a river. Classy.

Anybody else noticed the continually precarious state of Lynne's boobs? The wind must not blow much in her corner of the O.C. She can be forgiven for this though, as she has been too busy getting her head nice and deep in the sand. Best quote of the show (referring to her lush daughter): "I'm sure the cigarettes weren't hers. She was probably just carrying them for someone else". Flash to daughter saying oh ya they're totally mine. Wasn't there a Brady Bunch episode about this??

Otherwise, not much to report. Amazing Race is back and good as ever. This season there is a nice white trash couple named Linda and Steve who genuinely seem to love each other. But still...When they got to the end of this leg, our lovely host Phil Keoghan could not hide his distaste for them. Awkward Kathy Griffin fodder here folks. "Linda and Steve (turns head for breath), you are the nth team. Congratulations." What they didn't show was poor Phil high-tailing his cable-knit sweater out of dodge when he got that line out. 

Until next time, 

Mo

The Real(ly Bad) Housewives of Orange County

Has anyone else noticed that this season of The Real Housewives of Orange Country has been less housewives and more Girls Gone Horribly Horribly Wrong? As of the last episode we find ourselves in the following posish:

--Jeana is divorced/separated/generally not together with her d-bag husband (who else thought this had already happened and the show had had the taste to gloss over it?) and not making any particular effort to get back on the horse. 

--Vicky is her crazy old bitch self. Part of me wonders if this isn't selective editing on Bravo's end. Regardless, I wonder how her long-suffering husband Don has found the will to not throw himself in front of a speeding Escalade. 

--Lynne wondered last week if her house had a/c and how she would look into the matter. I have no words for this, nor her stupid cuff bracelets in which she evidently puts much time and effort. Perhaps less time spent in that endeavor would yield favorable results in preventing her 18 year old daughter drinking and driving?

--Tamra remains one of the major reasons I still watch this show. Her dinner party was truly hilarious and I'm sure will go down as one of the highlights of this season. I like her and her take on things, but not her creep-ass son. 

--Gretchen: To be or not to be a gold-digging whore, that is the question on my mind at the moment. As soon as I choose a side, something changes that. More selective editing from Bravo? Possibly. But the scene with her, Jeff, and the kids eating breakfast was pitiful. He looked like they had exhumed him and brought him home as-is. Or as-was? 

This show, and I am consciously avoiding using a certain phrase here, is a mess. Right now, it's a mess in an ohmigoditssobadiloveitsomuch sorta way, but the producers are toeing a very fine line. This could go into Being Bobby Brown-town quicker than any of us realize.