Sweet Genius, Vampire Diaries and more Hawaii 5-0

Think of the new show Sweet Genius as Chopped for desserts. The comparison was made in the promos, so it's  not a farfetched idea. Of course there are differences, and that is what makes the show unique in its own way.

So, what's the first ingredient in a show such as this? A great host! They've certainly found that in celebrated cake designer Ron Ben Israel. I confess to being unaware of him before I saw the first commercial for Sweet Genius, but in my own defense, I haven't exactly been in the market for a wedding cake either.

He is, to put it simply, gorgeous! There's something about him that draws me, something in his eyes. I could not keep away from the show if I tried! He is very personable and had a commanding stage presence. I've watched two episodes now, and enjoyed them both.

The format is similar to Chopped, but there is no basket of mandatory ingredients, per se. You start with four chefs, who are intro'd as on Chopped, and Ron explains that there are three rounds: Frozen, Baked and Chocolate. The first round comes with a mandatory ingredient, and an inspiration which the chefs must work from. In the first episode, the inspiration was darkness. Other inspirations have been a pearl in an  oyster, a Fabergé egg, and a cat. During each round, there will be other mandatory ingredients which will be presented to the chefs, which they must incorporate into their dishes. At the end of each round, Ron (who is the sole judge) tastes each dish and critiques. He decides which one does not measure up and he informs that chef that he or she is not a sweet genius, and they leave.



If it's not obvious by now (and I'm sure it is) I'm quite taken with the host. Er, I mean the show. No, I said it right the first time, it's the host. I do like the show, yes, but he makes it for me. I also watch Just Desserts on Wednesday nights, but I have to say that Ron is a better host than Gail is. I like her fine, but I don't think she has the strength or charisma that Ron possesses. I'm intrigued with his accent, but I haven't placed it yet. I just hope he talks more and more in coming episodes.

Okay, moving on.

*********Spoiler Alert***********

Vampire Diaries started its third season. Not surprising in a way, but somewhat in others. As you may remember, the last episode of season 2 was a veritable blood bath and free for all. So now, we have Elena and Jeremy with no living relatives. The writers smoothed over that dilemma quickly by moving the plot up to Elena's 18th birthday (so far the issue of Jeremy as minor has not arisen, but more on that). Alaric is camping out with them, or something. He's sleeping on the couch because he can't bear to sleep in either the dead parents' room or his dead gf's room. I don't know if he's supposed to be a surrogate parental authority but by the second episode, he's out of there and ready to throw in the spiritual towel. Quitter!

As you'll also recall, at the end of episode 2, Damon was bitten by a were, and that is pretty fatal for a vamp.  It looks like curtains for Damon (except we know better, seriously the show would fold immediately should they ever lose Damon Salvatore), but Elena doesn't realize this, so she gives him a last good-bye kiss. Surprise, he lives! And now he's tasted her sweet flesh, he wants more, and he intends to fight for it. While Elena, although pining for Stefan (the martyr sacrificed himself yet again, such a good boy) she is drawn to Damon, which is obvious. As I said, Stefan's doing the martyr thing, having agreed to go with Klaus in exchange for saving Damon's life. So now they're on a rampage in Tennessee and Stefan is killing with abandon. Damon and Alaric are tracking him through news clippings, but Elena finds out, and she still believes in him. A road trip to Tennessee with Damon leads him to believe the same, after a face to face with his brother. So I predict another road trip in the future, maybe some hot Damon/Elena action (any coincidence that they are allegedly dating in real life? Could be publicity driven, who knows. Ian can do better, I think, he's gorgeous, she's just okay).

So, what about the rest of the cast? Do they still exist. They do (except for Bonnie who really hasn't been  seen yet). Jeremy  (who died and was resurrected by Bonnie) is seeing things he shouldn't be seeing - namely his dead girlfriends. He's creeped out, and he's creeping out Matt as well. Caroline and Tyler did the horizontal mambo, and the next morning Tyler's mom caught Caroline - literally - with darts in her back. One vamp down! She tested Tyler with vervain but it didn't affect him cause he's a werewolf. She called in someone named Bill, who's being played by the guy who played Noah Bennett on Heroes, and they have Caroline locked up. Tyler puts two and two together, and on the night of the full moon, he forces his mother to witness his transformation. Howdya like them apples, Mrs. Lockwood? And in the kicker, we learn that Bill.... duh duh duh...... is Caroline's daddy. Interesting twist. We'll see how this plays out. We need to get Bonnie back in the plot, and I believe Elijah is unaccounted for. With Jeremy seeing dead people, who knows what past cast members might be resurrected? And of course there is Katherine. I don't remember what happened to her at the end of season 2, that's how little I like her.

Chopped Champions has its grand finale tonight, more about that later. Just Desserts is interesting, but I can't say it's the best Top Chef I've seen. I'm interested in seeing Top Chef Texas when it starts, and also the Next Iron Chef. I notice Sarah recorded The Chew, so I'm sure I'll be seeing that too - Carla (think Top Chef and hooty hoo and  you'll remember her) and Mario Batale are the only names I recognized in their line up. But those are two good names.

*****more spoilers*****

I watched the second Hawaii 5-0 today. I love this show so much! Especially, but not entirely for Alex  O'Loughlin. But primarily.

The new governor - former lieutenant governor - reinstated 5-0 after evidence came to light that McGarrett did not shoot the governor, although it was not conclusive enough to pin it on Wo Fat either. But the governor made it clear that things have changed, and that Hawaii 5-0 will have accountability. Today he proved he meant it by assigning a new member to the team, a former Homeland Security agent. Steve isn't thrilled and tries to keep her at a distance. But she grows on him. Which might be a good thing, since Kono's review before IA doesn't go well, and she's stripped of everything. I'm sure in future episodes we'll see more of the late governor/Wo Fat/McGarrett's dad connection. The greatest thing about the second episode is a scene in which Steve, Danno and the new girl are riding horses into a cult compound, and the boys start their typical bickering and she turns to them and asks "HOW LONG YOU BEEN MARRIED"  Best line ever. Again.

Okay, next new show. Person of Interest. Thursday nights, CBS. Michael Emerson and Jim Caviezel lead the  cast. I would never have discovered this show had it not been for Hawaii 5-0, cause that's the only time I'm on CBS, and it was just a fluke that I saw the promo. But something about it intrigued me, so I decided to give it a chance, and I'm glad I did.

At the beginning, Reese (Jim C) looks like a homeless person when he's attacked by young thugs on the subway. They picked the wrong person and he smacks them down handily, drawing the attention of the police. One female cop in particular is a recurring character, and she seems to be onto Reese. Finch (Michael E) is a billionaire with a lot of time and money on his hands. They have one thing in common - people think they're both dead. In a nutshell, Finch recruits Reese to his cause. He has a computer which was programmed to look for areas of trouble after 9-11. Every night it produces a list of non-essential data which it dumps, but these are actually people. So Finch retrieves them, one at a time. All he has is a social security number, but no knowledge of what will happen. Is this the victim, or the perp? Or the catalyst? Reese's job is to watch and prevent something from happening.

I really enjoyed the first show. It seems to be well written, fast paced, and definitely interesting, despite having  commercials (we watched it live, normally I record everything). It's also from JJ Abrams, who brought us the Star Trek movies, plus some TV shows I'm not really familiar with, so we'll see how this goes. But I'll definitely be watching it again. It comes on right before Sweet Genius, so I have two hours of TV on Thursday nights to look forward to, and two hours of crocheting.


I think that's it for now. I can't imagine what I've really forgotten. Whatever it is, I'll pick it up later.

Until next time, take care!

♥ Julie

Even Superman has flaws - no character should be perfect

Superman had everything going for him - faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Bullets ricocheted off his muscular physique like harmless grains of sand.  He could bend steel in his bare hands, he had powerful x-ray vision that see through anything, and he had a disguise which no one could penetrate.

Wait, scratch that.  He couldn't see through everything - lead was impenetrable to him. So, of course, once the bad guys caught on to that, lead-lined everything became the fashion.  And just let a little bit of kryptonite come onto the scene (a substance only found on Superman's planet of origin, Krypton, but luckily some of which made it into our universe along with the Baby of Steel), and Superman goes down for the count.  So, what does that prove?  That Superman, although a superhero, is not perfect.

Which is a good thing.  'Cause it's really hard to feel something or care about someone who's perfect, who can make everything happen with a simple wave of the hand, the right word, or the right blow.  How can you sympathize with someone like that, get into him, want to know him?  We're not perfect, as people, and we don't want our heroes to be either.  Even the ones with the amazing supernatural powers, such as the vampires, the werewolves, and the shifters. We want to know that there's a chance that they won't succeed, even if in the back of your mind you think they will, cause that's called conflict, and that's what writing is all about.

Your character can be the greatest person that ever was, but you want to make him imperfect.  Make  him human, give us a reason to care what happens to him. (For the purpose of this article, I'm using the male pronoun, but it goes for females as well, I just find it easier to use him rather than he/she). Backgrounds are good for that - tragedies in the past that hang over your hero's head like a dark cloud and come out to haunt him at the most inopportune times.  Here's a great one - the hero falls in love with the villain!  If that isn't a perfect conflict of interests, I don't know what is, and it produces lots of wiggle room and you can just watch the angst meter rise as he debates with himself just what to do - to love or not to love, to kill or not to kill, whatever the case might be.

It  may be nice to read about or watch the perfect hero for a while, but it does get old. So do something to mar that perfection, even if he isn't a superhero but just the perfect guy.  Make him a slob - have him throw his dirty socks in unfortunate locations, forget important occasions, or kick the dog (but not too hard, he's imperfect, he's not really mean). Have fun with the flaws.  In my Silver Flash series that I just started, I have a really cute guy who's really dense, and I find myself tickled at his denseness, even if his ex doesn't.  If  you're having fun with it, chances are better that your readers will have fun too.

There's a name for characters, particularly in fanfiction, that are just too perfect for words, one you truly wish to avoid - the Mary Sue/Gary Stu.  They're too good to be true, everyone loves them, everything they touch is golden, and they can do no wrong.  Ugh.  What they really are is manifestations of our own psyche translated to the written word - what we would be if we could be.  Ourselves as characters in our own dramas.  No one likes a Gary Stu.

The only exception that I can think of to this rule is Lt. Commander Steve McGarrett of Hawaii 5-0, played by the extremely sexy Alex O'Loughlin, late of Moonlight.  I've seen every episode of this series so far, and I'm here to tell you this - there is nothing that this man can't do or doesn't know.  Last night's episode begins with an important witness to a murder trial who is being pursued by bad guys sent by the murderer in question. Steve and Danno are split up at the beginning of the episode, because Danno's ex-wife and child are carjacked, and he has to deal with that, so Steve and Chin are searching for the witness, who is fleeing from professional killers. When they find her, Chin takes her back to safety, while Steve works on apprehending the hired hitmen. When he does get one, the guy has a punctured lung, and Steve has to perform an emergency procedure or he'll die!  Wow, whatta guy!

Are you gonna argue with that?  I know I'm not! Let him be perfect, it works for me!

Two things I particularly loved about this episode and about this oh so perfect man: While he's going after the two armed killers, he takes time out to talk to Danno on his cell phone and give him advice about how to deal with the situation he's in, with his ex and her new husband and all!  And I loved something that Chin said to the witness as they split up, Steve rushing out into the jungle to track down her would-be killers:  "Some guys, they're just born without a fear gene."

Yes, Steve is a Gary Stu, but I don't mind cause he's gorgeous.  As I said, he's the one exception to the rule.  Otherwise, they're just annoying and unrealistic.  And let's not forget the obverse rule - even villains have something good about them.  If you write your bad guy as all bad, that's gonna get real old too.  Writers have picked up on that whole sexy villain thing, and good and bad are on a more even playing field now, which is good. Villains need their humanity too, they're not all bad.  No one is.  It's that whole grey area thing.

In conclusion, a good character has to be multi-layered, like a real person.  You want them to appear to be as real as possible, so readers can relate. The nice thing is that different people will relate to different characters for their own reasons - it's called variety, and it works.  We don't all have to cheer for the same person, and it's okay to like someone that others hate.  It just makes it fun.

Now for the questions - tell me about characters you think are too perfect, and why that annoys you - good or bad.  Or tell me about the characters whose very flaws endears them to you - who are they and what are their human flaws?  I'd love to hear them!