sammi says

As a child, Dexter (Michael C. Hall) was found at a gruesome crime scene and was adopted by stand-up Miami Detective, Harry Morgan. As he grew up, Harry noticed that Dexter was not like the other kids. He spent his entire life trying to teach Dexter a code or set of rules teaching him to act like he fit in, like he belonged, like he wasn't an outsider and most of all, how to not get caught. See, Dexter has a dark passenger; a thirst for blood and a desire to kill. But because of Harry's rules, Dexter is a serial killer who only kills other serial killers.

That is the premise of the hit Showtime series, "Dexter," which just ended its 4th season this past December. I tried getting on board with "Dexter" after the first season had ended. I made it through 15 minutes of the first episode. In those 15 minutes we see Dexter stalking his victim, a pedophile who kills little boys, abducting him, and killing him while he's restrained to a table with plastic wrap in a room draped with plastic and the dead boy's bodies. It was way too much torture and blood for someone as easily scared and grossed out as I am.

Upon the recommendation of a friend I tried "Dexter" again. It became much more intriguing when I was able to get past the guts and gore and get into the real story behind it. The show is based on the novel, "Darkly Dreaming Dexter," by Jeff Lindsay, and is truly your worst nightmare...That someone you know and love could be capable of terrible things The rich characters make it all worth while. Dexter is a blood spatter analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department and works along side his foul-mouthed sister Deb (played by Jennifer Carpenter, Michael C. Hall's wife in real life), a detective. Dexter's inner-monologue narrates the show (Michael C. Hall has a super sexy voice, which is a plus!) and gives us insight into what makes him do the things he does. He claims he feels nothing and is faking his way through life. His girlfriend is an abused, divorced, single mom, Rita (Julie Benz), who Dexter claims is just a cover, but over time we see a real relationship develop.

I will not spoil anything, but you start to wonder why only a select few sense that there is something different about Dexter. After all, his closest relationships are within the homicide department whose job is to find killers. During each episode my hands would sweat and my stomach would churn thinking Dexter was going to get caught. It's excruciating watching all the trouble Dexter gets himself into and wondering how he's going to clean up his mess, literally. At the center of each episode is Dexter's kill. He stalks his prey, makes sure they fit Harry's code, sets up his kill room, puts on his kill uniform (a brown thermal shirt and cargo pants), abducts and kills his victim, then seamlessly cleans up without leaving a trace of evidence that anyone was ever murdered.

Throughout the series we see Dexter evolve and start to stray from Harry's code. Each season brings plenty of shocking twists, perhaps the most shocking at the end of season 4. He goes through a lot of changes but I really wish he would stop killing people! No kidding, it's hard to empathize with a serial killer, but "Dexter" makes it possible.

"Lost" is back on TV for it's sixth and final season on February 2. I cannot tell you how excited I am. So excited that I rewatched all of season five to get ready. I also watched this hilarious 8 minute and 15 second (815, get it?) official ABC recap of the first five seasons.



I think it's funny when you boil "Lost" down to its simplest form. Like when Hurley tells his mom what really happened on the island. Here are some of the great lines from the recap.

"Sawyer gets sick. Kate is worried. Jack gets jealous. Kate freaks out. Jack consoles her. They kiss. Kate freaks out again. Jack is confused."
"Sun is pregnant but Jin is sterile. What's up with that?"
"Michael iChats with Walt."
"The survivors see a boat. It's Desmond. He's drunk."
"Hurley finds Desmond running naked in the jungle. The hatch blew his clothes off and now he can see the future."
"Kate and Sawyer think they're going to die so they have sex."
"They see Jack playing football with Mr Friendly. Mr. Friendly throws like a girl."
"Patchy blows up the station and Charlie drowns. Very sad."
"Sayid and Desmond head to the freighter, Des has side effects. He calls Penny and all is well. Gotta love Des."
"The island starts flashing through time. That's right. Time travel."
"They also find Jin. He's alive. Yay."
"Locke is a broken man an wants to hang himself. Ben helps out."
"The screen goes to white instead of black. Cool."

So what's to come in season 6? According the "Lost" creators the entire original cast of survivors (minus Shannon played by Maggie Grace) will be back in some capacity or another. From what spoilers I've read it seems that by Juliet detonating the bomb, Oceanic flight 815 will land safely in Los Angeles.....or something like that. Who really knows how it will all play out. I trust the creators and writers will do what's best for the story. But don't get me wrong...there are a few things that would really piss me off. Ok, really just one thing- if for some reason Desmond and Penny don't end up together happily I will be super upset. Desmond has had a big part in the show since season 3, but I get the feeling his story isn't going to be told in the final season. He's not in the promo pictures. Honestly, I'd rather him not be a main feature of the season 6 if it means that nothing bad will happen to him.

If you haven't been watching, what the heck is wrong with you? I can guarantee when it's over and you hear everyone talking about how shocking the finale is and how great the show was, you'll be mad you weren't on the "Lost" bandwagon. Maybe you've watched a few seasons off and on and got a little lost (pun intended) when time travel started to get involved, or you've never seen an episode. Here's what I want you to do...buy "Lost" seasons 1-5 or go to www.abc.com and watch every single episode of "Lost" for free. Unless you're a freak like me you probably won't be caught up by February 2. But you can catch up before the sixth season's over.

20 days until "Lost" premiers on ABC, Tuesday, February 2.

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to attend the Lady Gaga concert in St. Louis. In the weeks leading up to the concert there was all kinds of talk that Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (based out of Kansas City) would be protesting the show because of many reasons but mostly because she's a gay-loving whore. If you're unfamiliar with Westboro Baptist they are the fools who protest soldiers funerals with signs that read, "God Hates Fags" and say the war and soldier's deaths are God's punishment to us for our acceptance of homosexuality. It's pretty messed up and I really don't care to talk about their diluted beliefs. Many liberal, open-minded St Louis citizens decided to start their own protest of Westboro Baptist (organized through Facebook, very official) saying all concert goers and everyone else willing to stand outside should head to the Fox Theatre and participate in same-sex makeout sessions, yell and scream vulgarities and all kinds of other debauchery to piss of the protestors. Now, I started to get excited about not only going to the concert but being a part of a social movement and seeing young people standing up for their lifestyles. Then a huge snowstorm hit most of the midwest and Westboro Baptist didn't see fit to travel in the poor conditions. Victory is ours!

On to the concert. The show was opened by Semi Precious Weapons who I had heard of, but never really heard their music before. It's definitely in the same vein as Lady Gaga. Their showmanship was entertaining. A good warm up. Next was Jason Derullo. An absolutely terrible performance. This guy is a joke. For starters, the song, "What You Say," makes me wish I was deaf. The rest of his music sounded exactly a like and he put on a pretty lame set with a few dancers. All the high schoolers in the audience seemed to love him. I found the fifteen Michael Jackson songs played over the sound system before the show a much more entertaining. Everyone was clearly excited for the show, especially this woman. She got a standing ovation from the entire balcony when she was finished dancing.

Finally, it was time for the main act. The show opened with "Dance in the Dark," not my favorite song, but I was glad she did it early on and saved some of my favorites for the end. The stage was framed and set up with three large screens (two on the side, one in the back) that were playing images and interesting backgrounds that changed continuously throughout the show. Turns out, a live band was behind those screens which we saw when they were slightly raised towards the middle of the show. The next song was "Just Dance," in which Gaga, wearing a light-up dress was raised above a glass box playing a keytar. During "Love Game" Gaga was wearing a sort of marching band hat and even had a baton/disco stick. Crazy costumes ensued for "Alejandro," "Monster," "So Happy I Could Die," and "Teeth."

"Speechless" came towards the middle of the show. Gaga sat at a militarized looking, spinning piano. (At one point she even took out a fake machine gun and pretended to shoot the audience, not exactly great timing consider there was a shooting rampage in St. Louis that morning.) She dedicated "Speechless" to the audience but must not have been aware that the planned protest was cancelled or maybe she just assumed we all knew about it, because she kept making references to free love, acceptance and even said that we're (the concert-goers) are the normal ones and "the freaks are outside and we locked the f-ing doors." Which would have been especially poignant had there actually been protestors outside. Regardless, I enjoyed the sentiment and it fit well with a song like "Speechless."

Next came some of my favorite songs, "Fame," "Money Honey," "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," "Pokerface," a real crowd pleaser and "Paper Gansta." Perhaps the most bizarre yet intriguing performance was "Papparazzi." The stage was dark with twinkling white lights in the background. Two dancers came out holding a pole horizontally above their heads with Gaga's hair attached to it. Her wig had two rings attached to it which made her able to slide up and down the pole. At one point she stepped out of the framed in stage and onto a lighting rig which was raised halfway off the ground, all while attached to this pole. It was definitely a spectacle.

For the encore Gaga was brought onto stage in her signature orb and performed "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say," and of course, "Bad Romance," ending the show with a bang. The concert was amazing. It was a highly innovative extravaganza. My ears rang for days. It was one of those shows you leave and think, "Wow, I really just saw something." Easily worth my sixty bucks.

The only thing NBC has done right recently is renewing "Chuck." It only took fan campaigns and lots of begging from TV critics. "Chuck" was back with a bang this past Sunday and Monday with three full episodes kicking off its third season. If you don't know much about "Chuck" here's the deal....Chuck (hottie Zachary Levi) is a college dropout, Nerd Herd employee at the local Buy More (think Geek Squad at Best Buy). Chuck accidentally sees a video of all the CIA's secrets which are now implanted in his brain. When Chuck sees bad guys, weapons, or certain symbols he flashes on this information and all the government dirt and intel is downloaded in his brain. Chuck is sent two government handlers, agents Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski) and John Casey (Adam Baldwin) who need Chuck's help to save the world. Chuck of course can't tell his family or friends he works for the CIA and also falls in love with Sarah. The show is equal parts action and comedy making it totally amazing.

At the end of last season Chuck downloads a new version of the intersect which gives him the ability to not only know top secret information but to be able to act out certain skills thus making him a super spy. Now when he flashes he knows kung-fu, can maneuver through a series of laser beams or can perform medical procedures. We find out in the first episode that he chose being a spy over running away with Sarah. Surely this will cause lots of drama throughout the season. But the greatest development is Captain Awesome.

Dr. Devon "Awesome" Woodcombe (Ryan McPartlin) is Chuck's sister, Ellie's (Sarah Lancaster) husband and also the only civilian who knows Chuck's secret. Awesome is an extreme sports loving, super-ripped, handsome, surgeon. In the third episode, "Chuck vs. the Angel of Death," Awesome saves the life of a dictator of a small country who is the victim of an assassination attempt. He gets wrapped up in the dangerous life of this dictator and we find out at the end of the episode that he's been kidnaped by the assassin. I love that they are making Awesome and Ellie a bigger part of the show. I look forward to seeing Awesome and Chuck kicking some ass. Let's face it, this is the most action packed show on NBC's roster.

"Chuck" airs on Mondays at 7pm on NBC.

Last week we heard that "The Jay Leno Show" would no longer air in prime-time and that NBC was interested in making Jay's show a half and hour which would air at 11:35 pm and "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" would air at 12:05am. Now, for all of us mid-westerners, our local news airs at 10pm with "The Tonight Show" starting at 10:35pm, so all of this may not make a huge difference to us. Either way, last week when all of this information started to swirl around I was telling everyone I thought that no matter how backwards the whole situation is, Conan would probably do whatever it takes to keep his staff employed and to make his job work considering he just relocated everyone from New York City to Los Angeles just months ago. I kept up with all the late-night hosts jabs at the situation and even with what little Jay and Conan were saying in their monologues....I figured they were told to keep it light about the whole ordeal.

So it was much to my surprise yesterday to hear that Conan let loose and released a statement saying he would NOT continue to host "The Tonight Show" if it is moved to 12:05am, making the totally valid point that 12:05 is not tonight, it's tomorrow. I am so proud of Conan for standing up for himself and his staff. After all, he's only been hosting the show a mere seven months, and while it may not be doing awesome in the ratings, did NBC ever consider it's because of their atrocious prime-time lineup, especially Jay Leno's lead in to the local news, which news affiliates across the country have stated that Jay has hurt their ratings terribly? Next thing you know NBC is going to cancel "30 Rock" and "The Office," and will only air reruns of "Joey" on Thursdays, fire Brian Williams as the host of the "Nightly News" replace him with Heidi and Spencer and Kathy Lee and Hoda will take over all four hours of "Today."

NBC announced in 2004 that Conan O'Brien would be replacing Jay Leno as the host of "The Tonight Show." So what went wrong? Why didn't Jay just move on, keep doing his stand-up comedy gigs across the country and retire from TV? My only guess is that Jay wasn't ready. He didn't ceremoniously retire after 30 long years like his beloved predecessor, Johnny Carson. I bet he's kicking himself now for not doing just that. Instead of retiring honorably with everyone having fond memories of of his show, Jay-walking, Headlines and the like, he'll be remembered for being publicly ridiculed by his peers and being a national joke. And that's the thing....TV viewers across the country knows that NBC is screwing up royally. They know that no matter what time Jay is on TV that it's over for him. Why can't NBC understand this? If NBC had fully backed Conan in the very beginning (i.e. not changing the landscape of late-night TV by adding a talk show in prime-time) I bet they'd be doing a lot better in the ratings. Although, NBC is notorious for screwing up "The Tonight Show." Back in the early 90's David Letterman was hand picked by Johnny Carson to be the new host of "The Tonight Show" but NBC pulled a dick move and picked Leno. Letterman has probably never been more pleased that he made the move to CBS.

My love for Conan O'Brien runs deep and I will follow him where ever he goes. If NBC knows what's good for them they will pull Leno from the lineup and keep Conan and "The Tonight Show" at it's regular time, 11:35, 10:35 central, and give Conan the chance he deserves.

I want to give some love to my favorite gossip column. The Awful Truth over at www.eonline.com is written by wordsmith Ted Casablanca and always has the best dish and is probably the most enjoyable to read. Ted has loads of personality and a writing style that takes some getting used to, but when you finally get it, you really feel like you're really reading something juicy. And often times, you are...

Ted seems to always have the best dish that doesn't end up on TMZ or in the tabloids. There are certain things that just can't be written about our beloved celebs without these publications being seriously sued. See, Ted doesn't want to be sued either so he only ever gives just enough information to get his point across and lets you fill in the blanks. For the really dirty dish, he posts blind items, which he calls "Blind Vices," and tells the whole story in detail but doesn't use the star's real name. Still stumped about who he's referring to? Just look at the comments and his gossip-hound readers usually make very informed guesses.

Ted's scoop is almost always spot on...usually after a huge celeb scandal starts to surface Ted will reveal a blind vice he wrote weeks, months or years earlier detailing the dirt. He says recently deceased star, Brittany Murphy was a regular Blind Vice, though he's not revealing which one yet. In light of Murphy's death Ted has reached out to Blind Vice favorite, Morgan Mayhem aka Lindsay Lohan pleading for her to get her act together and it's not the first time he's done it either. He's not heartless....he loves celebs like we do and wants the best for them. Lindsay has even responded to friends and fans concerns posting on her Twitter,

"Wishing everyone a blessed new year in 2010! Everyone get ready for more (but positive-LOHAN MAYHEM!!!!!!!!) Thanks for all of your support!"

Hopefully she'll take heed and get her act together. Some other favorite Blind Vices include Toothy-Tile aka Jake Gyllenhal, who is totally gay and this is no secret to Reese Witherspoon...and Me-Me Dallas and Tobey Yum Yum aka Miley Cyrus and Nick Jonas who have done the deed and aren't as innocent as they claim.

Everyday Ted will answer your questions in the "Bitch-Back" which is definitely a must-read for any gossip fan. "Truth, Lies, and Ted" is his hilarious end-of-the-week video wrap up which is too funny to miss. Ted and his crew have been on Christmas break and will finally return tomorrow with what surely deliver some serious celeb shenanigan's over the holidays. Catch up at The Awful Truth.

Over this long Christmas break and many days when I was deathly ill (deathly is exaggerating, but it certainly felt like it at times) I spent my time watching every single episode of "How I Met Your Mother." Over the years I have seen the occasional episode of "How I Met Your Mother," but never kept up because I felt like I missed out on too much of the inside jokes. Well, not anymore. I'm fully caught up and wondering why there's a lack of hype surrounding this show.

I'm thinking that an older demographic (the CBS crowd) are the ones watching when really it should be popular among the 18-24 demo. It's about a group of five 30-somethings living in New York City trying to figure out their lives and usually centers around dating and drinking. Sure, we've seen tons of TV shows with this premise but "How I Met Your Mother" offers something different.

Every episode is centered around a story and is told in the way that we would tell our friends about a crazy/absurb/funny/drunken situation that has happened to us. It's told out of order and sometimes details are forgotten or exaggerated. The episodes are narrated by Bob Saget, who plays the voice of the main character, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), in the future telling his kids the story of how he met their mother. This gives the show a little something extra, setting it apart from the "Friends" and "Seinfelds." When the story involves the gang smoking weed, "we were smoking weed" is replaced by "we were eating sandwiches," the names of girls he has forgotten are replaced with "Blah Blah," any details he doesn't want his kids to know are loosely veiled in funny ways.

The characters are so rich and lovable. I love finding out about their backstories in the same way we were all shocked and pleased with the "Friends" flashback episodes (Fat Monica, Loser Ross, Pre-nose-job Rachel etc..). Ladies man, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), was a 20-year-old, virgin-hippie, Anchor-woman, Robin (Cobie Smulders), was a Canadian pop star, Kindergarten teacher, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), was a goth chick, Lawyer, Marshall (Jason Segel), was a Minnesotan, wannabe basketball star nicknamed "Vanilla Thunder," and Architect, Ted, was a pretentious, know-it-all....and hasn't really changed much.

I did find myself comparing the show with "Friends," as I was watching. I've seen every episode of "Friends" a hundred times (ashamed to say that's probably not an exaggeration) and so watching "How I Met Your Mother" was a breath of fresh air. There are a lot of similarities but the jokes are new and the dialogue is modern. Think about it, the first season of "Friends" aired in 1994, a lot has changed since then. You can say and imply a lot more on TV these days, they go out at night and drink beer at a bar instead of coffee at the coffee house and not to mention the whole "Bro" phenomenon, which is a huge part of "How I Met Your Mother."

I definitely recommend "How I Met Your Mother." It's smart, it's funny, and sometimes should be called, "The Neil Patrick Harris Show," because he's so damn hilarious and really an amazing actor. In real life he's as gay as the day is long, but you don't even consider that when he's playing Barney Stinson, the womanizing "bro." In fact, I got a little crush on him about midway through the series. It's in its fifth season but definitely start watching, you can always catch up later.

"How I Met Your Mother" airs on Monday nights at 7pm on CBS. New episodes start on January 11.