Top TV Pairings Part 1

Okay, so I've decided to pick thirty shows I'm currently watching in various ways and picked some of my favourite pairings. A lot of the pairings are romantic, a few quasi-romantic or platonic. Hope you enjoy the first part of this.

K9 - Alistair Gryffen/June Turner

Falls into the category of a non romantic pairing but if this show actually goes from having a second season in development to a second season on the air, who knows? There's certainly a nice rapport between Department lady June Turner and now not so agoraphobic Professor Alistair Gryffen.

Sugar Rush - Kim Daniels/Saint

I've been watching repeats of the second season on 4Music (and I'll be doing some blogs relating to the series soon) and I realise that I really did love Kim and Saint as a couple. They certainly weren't perfect but they were interesting though and it's a shame the show was cut so shortly as well.

Carnivale - Ben Hawkins/Sofie Agnesh Bojakshiya

Something of an odd pairing this one, it's kind of a shame that the writers didn't explore them further but their scenes together on TV were quite good. I wish we had seen more between Ben and Sofie.

Sex And The City - Miranda Hobbes/Steve Brady

This show has always been a mixed bag with couples but somehow, the writers (if you ignore the subsequent movies in 2008/2010) got it right with Miranda and Steve. Great chemistry with the actors and far more believable than the Carrie/Big rubbish that's bogged the show down as well.

Modern Family - Phil Dunphy/Claire Dunphy

I know I should talk about this show a lot more than I do, so I'm adding Phil and Claire to this as well. A great couple, brilliant rapport between the respective actors portraying them but also rather believable as well, though this show excels with all the couples.

Give It Up For An Original Song That Is

And here's a jumble of some of the stuff I've been watching over the last few weeks ...

Being Human US: I need to catch up with the ninth episode (and I will) but episodes seven and eight are showing me that the show can improve. Dedicating one episode to Josh's family and Sally's attempts of getting Bridgette away from Danny was good but the other episode's attempt of retooling the paedophile storyline from the UK series wasn't as successful. The cast are gelling better with each other and Josh's developing relationship with Nora is a nice piece of normalcy for the series as well but Bishop isn't drawing me the same way that Herrick would do in the UK show and Aidan needs to be darker. He's too twee at the moment.

Desperate Housewives: Oh Lordy, we're in a dearth of uninteresting plots. You know something it worrying about a series when you have Gabby using a doll to cope with her grief as the strong point. The rest has been rubbish - I didn't care for Lynette's passive aggressive attempts of getting back at Tom and nor do I care for her mother's racist new boyfriend. Similarly, Susan's kidney plot is tedious, Renee still isn't gelling that well as a character, Bree just became a massive bitch by concealing Keith's kid from him and the return of Zach isn't doing much right now to kickstart this storyline with Paul and Beth. Damn it, show, get a flipping move on already. I don't want to be bored by you.

Glee: I've already kind of talked about the last two episodes pretty extensively already but keeping things simple, I loved the sex education courtesy of Holly and I loved that New Directions actually won for a change at Regionals, so for me, these last two episodes have been a blast. While I also think Santana's realisation of her feelings have been better handled than Blaine suddenly fancying Kurt, the show should be praised for forwarding these storylines at long last. Now if only Finn could grow a backbone and pick between Rachel and Quinn and Sue could suffer some actual consequences for her monstrous behaviour, then everything will be right with this show.
Modern Family: I haven't been catching up on this as much as I should have but the last episode I watched was the one with Chloe from 24 in it and I enjoyed it. Often I find Cameron and Mitchell too stereotypical for my liking but I really liked this episode. I sort of guessed that the child that Mitchell thought he fathered would end up being his ex-girlfriend rather short boyfriend but it was handled pretty well and I might try and make more of an effort to try and watch the remainder of the season.

Skins UK: Ah, not one but two great final episodes. I love the way certain fans went apeshit over the idea of Grace and Rich actually getting engaged. I knew they wouldn't actually tie the knot and even if they had, it wouldn't have bothered me. This finale managed to be better than either finale the second generation had and while I'm not keen on a pairing between Franky and Matty, I really am finding it interesting that Mini's attitude towards Franky has dramatically changed since the start of the season. I just hope that low ratings aside, we do get a sixth year so this lot can be seen out in style.

Skins US: I need to catch up with Tina's episode but both Michelle and Daisy's ones were enjoyable, surprisingly. Or maybe I'll just never tire of seeing Tony getting socked by Michelle, regardless of incarnation but either way, this show is improving. Michelle's episode was pretty faithful to it's UK version but Daisy's deviated quite a lot from the Jal one it was inspired by. I'm not sure about Daisy and Abbud but seeing as he's improved greatly as a character, I'll keep an open mind. I hope the last two are great.

- Kristin Chenowith and Leslie Bibb are amongst the actresses signed up for a new ABC series called Good Christian Bitches about a woman who returns to her old town after her marriage collapses.
- Being Human US has been picked up for a second season while the UK version has deservedly bagged a fourth year.
- Matthew Morrison has revealed that he thinks both Will and Emma will eventually get together in Glee. Meanwhile watch for Sue assembling her own legion of doom against Will towards the end of the season.
- It's been revealed that Season 4 of True Blood will take place a year after the events of the previous year.
- Jeri Ryan will be guest starring in Law And Order: Criminal Intent soon.
- Sonia Braga will be reprising her role as Gabriella for the season finale of Brothers And Sisters.
- Andrew Lincoln has revealed the second season of The Walking Dead will be more emotionally charged.
- Merlin has now been picked for a fourth season of 13 episodes instead of 10 as originally reported.

Earthquake

Desperate Housewives - why I am nervous that both RTE2 and Channel 4 are airing this early? Oh, maybe because they did this before with Season 5 and that turned out to be rubbish. Might be premature to write off Season 7 though one thing I will say is that I'm not sold on Vanessa Williams's character, Renee Perry just yet. Too much like a watered-down Wilhemina for my liking and I just can't buy into her and Lynette's 'friendship' either. I'll need further convincing but on the plus side, it does look like the Paul vs. Felicia arc could be a lot of fun and the storylines with Gabby/Carlos lying to each other and Bree having the hots for her decorator, Keith have potentia. Susan's one involving cleaning in skimpy clothing for her landlady's website only seems to prove that the writers are struggling to come up with storylines for her nowadays. As for the first three minutes of this episode - some of the best/nostalgia fuelled ever.

Smallville - Martha Kent is Red Queen? What the hell? I'm all for seeing a bad ass side to Mrs Kent but not to this extent. I actually thought at one point that she was going to shoot Tess. After all, she had no problems using kryptonite on her own son, so shooting a morally ambiguous girl like Tess wouldn't have been a step too far but luckily, she didn't. I get that part of Martha's big plan was to protect her son/the world but I kind of wished she gone about it in a better way. Still, it was heaps better than the Clark/Lois stuff this week and I did like the return of Perry as well.

The Vampire Diaries - Memo to Damon, if you keep killing every person that wrongs you, eventually someone is going to get lucky and actually finish you off. There's only so many times that Damon will be able to save himself or require assistance from Elena or Stefan before meeting the end. I actually didn't blame Bree for setting Lexie's boyfriend on Damon and it's a shame that Damon killed her in this one because I'd rather see Gina Torres in this show than Gossip Girl. The stuff with Elena's adoption only served to prove how little versed I am in this world but I can already tell that Jeremy's new friend isn't what she seems. However the best stuff of this episode was the insight into Alaric's past and the Stefan/Bonnie interactions this week. I am definitely glad that I'm watching this show.

Modern Family - for a hyped episode, the earthquake episode was certainly interesting. Nathan Lane had an amusing cameo as an embarrassing friend of Mitchell and Cameron's and I certainly liked that Claire came to the realisation that she was turning into her mother but I'm beginning to think that Gloria is going a little overboard with her religious beliefs. Maybe she should accept the fact that Jay doesn't share them, instead of getting into a hissy fit over it, eh?

Lip Service - another overhyped new drama but I liked this one. Sure, it's pretty much The L Word in Scotland and certain characters here are similar to other (Frankie/Shane, Tess/Alice) but overall, this is a pretty decent series for BBC3 and while the sex scene in the funeral home won't be to a lot of people's tastes, I do think the show has the potential to be interesting enough without trying too hard to be shocking. Most of the characters are well rounded and the cast do seem to click well with each other. Even Roxanne McKee from Hollyoaks is working well on this one. Definitely one to consider.

- No Ordinary Family and Brothers And Sisters have both been commissioned four extra episodes each for their current season.
- It's looking more likely that Sam will now be a love interest for Quinn in Glee instead of Kurt. Oh, and Puck won't be pleased about it.

- Necar Zadegan has scored a recurring role as mystery character Isabelle on The Event. The series starts on Channel 4 on Friday at 9pm.

- V will return on January 4th on ABC and the series will be exploring more of the mythology behind the Visitors.
- HBO are developing a pilot for a fashion series with Tea Leoni called Spring/Fall. Six Feet Under scribe Kate Robin is writing the pilot for the series.

Oh For The Love Of Cheesus

Religion is a tricky topic on television and Glee certainly wasted zero time in getting their views across in last week's episode. I was happy that Burt Hummell was going to have more to do in the series but I wasn't expecting him to have heart problems and be the centre of a religious discussion. Here's my stance - I'm with the Kurt and Sue Sylvester's on the notion of religion and I found that people like Mercedes and Rachel, in spite of meaning well did force their opinions on Kurt too freely. Rachel herself also crossed a social line by singing Papa Can You Hear Me to a comatose Burt as well. In terms of the other song choices in this one - props for Kurt's rendition on I Wanna Hold Your Hand and the group's version of One Of Us but Finn's version of Losing My Religion left me cold as did his inane plot with a grilled cheesus sandwich. Some fans might not like the more topical of episodes on this show and while the religious arguments were pretty heavy handed, this was easily the strongest episode of the new season so far.

I like Modern Family and I pretty much dipped in and out of the first series, mostly enjoying it. Thursday saw the return of the series with the first two episodes airing back to back but it was the second episode that was the main highlight. It was the episode that the writers decided to tackle Mitchell's awkwardness with public displays of affection and finally give viewers an on-screen kiss with him and Cameron. Which the episode handled well but it wasn't the highlight of the first two episodes. I think the craziness with Claire's two daughters along with Gloria's insistence on her dead mother being in the room with them was somewhat more interesting. Overall, this remains a fun, feel-good series that for the most part doesn't try too hard to be too funny but still manages to get the right amount of laughs nonetheless.

There should be more episodes where Chloe and Tess have to spend time with each in Smallville. Tess might not be someone you'd trust with your life but her skills of deduction are certainly something that you'd wish would occassionally pass through both Clark and Oliver from time to time. We might not have needed Tess to point out how much Oliver is into Chloe but it certainly didn't harm the episode and their moments together were better than anything concerning Checkmate (Waller needs to get better) or Oliver's ham fisted attempts to take out Zod all by himself. Next time, Oliver, try to pay attention to the few times in which Clark is actually right about something. It helps, y'know.

That halfway point of The Vampire Diaries and whilst ITV2 viewers are enjoying the second season, I'm still with the first one. So, the last episode that I watched had Alaric staking Logan and Elena doing what every sensible girl would do when finding out that she resembled her beau's last girlfriend - fleeing. Every week, I keep getting surprised with this series and with Elena in dire straits at the end of the episode, I'm certainly looking to seeing her getting out of that one as well as learning more about the Glibert family tree.

Ugly Betty has been rather there for the last couple of weeks but because I've seen the episodes earlier in the year, I haven't been as anxious to rewatch them (that doesn't mean the series is bad, it's really not) but the Bahamas episode was a lot of fun. The Shakira appearance worked well in the show's favour and the varying hook-ups reminded me that this must've been a sweeps episode when it aired in the UK. Plus, it also brought the Wilhemina/Connor relationship to an end for now. Don't worry, folks, Grant Bowler will still appear later on in the series.

What is it with the CW and remakes nowadays? First there were 90210 and Melrose Place (which deservedly bombed) and now, Nikita? I've watched episodes of the original series and it was a wonderful precursor to Alias but this version, judging on the first episode alone is like the bastard child of Dollhouse and Battlestar Galactica. To say I was bored shitless would almost be a kind thing to say but Christ, this was certainly a wasted hour of my life. Maybe later episodes will be something interesting but overall, this was an incredibly dire start to a series that probably did not need resurrecting in the first place.

- Expect an infidelity plot with Kevin and Scotty in Brothers And Sisters as well as one of them briefly going missing. Sally Field is also an executive producer of the series now.

- Desperate Housewives Season 7 will air on Channel 4, Sundays at 10pm from October 17th.
- Modern Family actors, Jesse Tyler-Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet have appeared in a PSA in regards to teens being bullied. Mary Lynn Rajskub will also appear in an episode as a former girlfriend of Mitchell's.

- Glee will be tackling the nature of suicide in an upcoming episode as well as bullying. It's rumoured both stories will involve Kurt. Another episode will show us younger versions of Brittany and Santana.

- Christine Willes will be joining Smallville in the role of Granny Goodness. The character was briefly seen in the previous season but will have a bigger role this time around.

- Channel 4 have secured the rights to the new Camelot series for transmission in 2011. They'll also be airing The Event from October 22nd.