Life Beyond the Casinos

There is a show on TruTV that recently caught my attention. “Lizard Lick Towing”,  is this show for real?  The episode I watched these guys flew to New Orleans and repossessed an air boat.   Shades of Deliverance.  I had a hard time believing it wasn’t all made up for the cameras.   Then I switched over to the  TLC and started watching “Long Island Medium”.  This woman is supposed to be for real, unlike “The Ghost Whisper” which I love to watch.

Melinda (Jennifer Love Hewitt) is crying while talking to her husband, Jim (David Conrad), who really isn't her husband. It's her husbands spirit in another man's body (Sam Lucas).

I want to believe that this woman can talk to the dead, but she is making a living with her parlor tricks, drives a Mercedes no less,  so there is a lot of room for doubt.  To be fair she has a track record and has been on several talk shows, but really!  I watched several episodes because they were running them all day Sunday.  It was called “Catch up”.   I didn’t see anything she said that was all that earth shattering or life changing as the series tries to prompt.  

Reality,  who doesn’t have a dead loved one?   Who doesn’t feel guilt over the loss of a child?  Who doesn’t wish they could have spent more time with their loved one before they died?   She is “reading” as she calls it.  She is reading the emotions in the room.  I don’t believe she is talking to dead people.  But it is fun to watch and I would like to believe what she is saying.

At least when I watch “The Ghost Whisperer”, which was originally based on a real person, I know I am watching fantasy.  Hollywood has put a spin on it to make it more interesting.   

I don’t know how much of that Long Island accent I can take on this show.  I may have to switch over to “Lizard Lick Towing” again.

It took me awhile but I have figured out how to watch Netflix on my Smart TV and now I am hooked on a series called “The Vampire Diaries”.   This show is in its third season on iTV2 which I don’t get.  But on Netflix  you can watch the whole series starting with episode 1 season 1.    I have only watch the first two shows so far.

It stars Paul Westly (29) as an 162-year-old vampire Stefan Salvatore.  23-year-old Nina Dobrev stars as Elena Gilbert, a teenager who falls in love with him. 

After you get past the fact that none of the cast could possibly be in high school, it is compelling to watch.  Considering Paul was born the year I graduated college, the whole thing is a fantasy for sure.  I hope to look that good at 162.

Ian Somerhalder plays Damon Salvatore, Stephan’s evil and might I add equally hot brother.  There are some gruesome bloody shots of bodies hanging from trees and attacks in graveyards, but mostly it is a love story with some rather odd participants to say the least.   I need to watch more of these to give you a better review.  There are lots of episode for me to catch up on.

This has become a must watch show for me.  Loosely based on the movie “Raising Arizona”, it is quirky and fun.   I am glad to see Cloris Leachman back in a series.  When she dived under the mattress after a piece of taffy I almost pissed my pants.  The rest of the cast is great too.  Not since “Married with Children” have I seen a group of odd balls that I could still relate too like these people.

I’ve been searching for Christmas movies that have made me smile over the years.   There are many that I enjoy watching year after year.   Did you know that “It’s a Wonderful Life” is considered the most inspirational film of all time?  I have fond memories of watching this in my grandmother’s apartment every year when I was a child.   As a child of the ’70 (17 when this was made) I also remember the Marlo Thomas (That Girl) version called “It Happened One Christmas”.   Marlo was being interviewed with her husband Phil Donahue on some talk show the other day and it reminded me of this TV classic.   

Of course, the original with Donna Reed and James Stewart will always be the definitive versioin, but Marlo does a nice job with this retelling.

What movies are on your must see list for Christmas? 

Here is my top 10.

1.  It’s a  Wonderful Life.

2.  White Christmas.

3.  Holiday Inn.

4.  A Christmas Carol (1951).

5.  How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon).

6.  A Christmas Story.  (You’re gonna shoot your eye out with that thing!)

7.  Charlie Brown’s Christmas. (Mom let us stay up past 7 to watch this!)

8.  Home Alone. (Macaulay Culkin was so cute!)

9.  Meet Me in St. Louis.  (While technically not a Christmas movie, Judy does sing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.   It is kind of a sad song.   The Ella Fitzgerald version is much more light and happy.)

10.  National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. (Chevy Chase at his best.)