I really didn’t need to add any more television shows to my repetoire. But my friend Beth has a way of looping me into her world of lovely CBS television shows, chances for conference calls with TV stars and on-set visits (which of course I can’t do being 7 months pregnant) that get my dorky Midwest heart all-a-flutter. I just can’t say no to someone asking me to watch a new television show.
Especially when they’re good.
So last week I sat down to watch two new shows appearing on CBS’s lineup this fall – The Good Wife and Accidentally on Purpose. Starring Julianna Margulies and Jenna Elfman, respectively, these shows deal with the issues I write often about here: re-entry into the workforce after having kids. Of course, I have no experience about dealing with the issues of an unfaithful husband or getting accidentallky knocked up at age 37, but whatever, I’m always trying to be transparent about putting reviews about anything up here on this blog.
Because they’re good.
According to CBS press materials, The Good Wife is:
a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband’s very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail. Pushing aside the betrayal and crushing public humiliation caused by her husband Peter (Chris Noth), Alicia Florrick (Margulies) starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney. As a junior associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm, she joins her longtime friend, former law school classmate and firm partner Will Gardner (Josh Charles), who is interested to see how Alicia will perform after 13 years out of the courtroom. Alicia is grateful the firm’s top litigator, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), offers to mentor her but discovers the offer has conditions and realizes she’s going to need to succeed on her own merit.
Hello, you had me at Chris Noth. (Even if does play the biggest prick to cross the TV screen since Elliott Spitzer.) Margulies looks great and shows a depth of emotion in her character as a jilted wife. I’ll be back to see if she sticks by her husband’s side for much longer.
You can watch a clip here:
Accidentally on Purpose is a little lighter and a little, well, less realistic. But it’s still fun. According to CBS the show is:
is a comedy starring Golden Globe Award winnerJenna Elfman as Billie, a single woman who finds herself “accidentally” pregnant after a one-night stand with a much younger guy, and decides to keep the baby… and the guy. A newspaper film critic, Billie is barely surviving a humiliating breakup with her charming boss, James (Grant Show), who’s still trying to resume their relationship. Suddenly expecting a child with her “boy toy,” Zack (Jon Foster), Billie and Zack make an arrangement: to live together platonically. Billie’s party girl best friend Olivia (Ashley Jensen), and Abby (Lennon Parham), her conventional, younger married sister, eagerly look forward to the new addition and offer their own brands of advice and encouragement. But when Zack and his freeloading friends, including Davis (Nicolas Wright), start to turn her place into a frat house, Billie isn’t sure if she’s living with a boyfriend, a roommate, or if she just has another child to raise.
Hello, you had me at Grant Show. Like I said, not so realistic, but Jenna Elfman is way cuter and less annoying as she was as the wacky wife on Dharma and Greg, and the dad-to-be is rather adorable and endearing. Plus, you had me at Grant Show.
I’m telling you this because OMG I’m actually going to be PUBLISHED in this book alongside these incredible writers and OMG maybe someone may be reading my essay to the audience on Thursday as well. I am bummed that I couldn’t be there in person, but I know it’ll be a great event if Beth has anything to do with it. Details are here.
Other than that, I’ve taken on a substantial load of writing (for me, at least) from Chicago Parent for the next few months, which alternatively excites and scares me, because I actually have commitments now and deadlines and stuff. But, I like to be busy, so I’ll take it.
And I’ll keep thinking about that post I’m working on. I hope I don’t chicken out.
I have this thing about my hair. I always change my mind about what kind of style I want. Currently, I’m in the midst of wanting my hair to be super long.
I actually once had really long hair. With bangs! (collective gasp begin now)
I’m fully blaming “new mom brain” for this look.
A few cuts later and it was the Katie Holmes bob-o-rama of 2007
I swear I didn’t mean for this to happen.
Which brings me to 2009 or, Operation: Growing It Out. Otherwise known as a painful ordeal where I partially revist “The Rachel” cut. Not on purpose.
Had I known I was going to go back in time with my hairstyle I WOULD HAVE NEVER CUT MY HAIR!
Of course, when I found out this week that Katie went from bob to bombshell overnight with magical hair extensions I went loony. Now I only have one mission in mind: Must Look Like Holmes Again.
It’s just not fair that us frugal peons have to do the grow out the old-fashioned way.
I know PunditMom and ChickyChickyBaby are also leading the quest for long hair. Are you? Let’s all share photos of our progress. We can live in grow-out misery together.
Until then, I’m wearing my hair back and in headbands daily.
It’s January, and that means all my tv shows are back on the air with new episodes. Right now I’ve got a heavy television load to bear. I’m in serial drama hell and I can’t recuse myself from all the new shows of LOST, Damages, Nip/Tuck and Grey’s Anatomy. These four shows alone are eating up all my down time. So when Beth, my link to all TV stars, asked if I wanted a sneak peak of a new drama on TNT I got worried. There’s no way I could add a new show to my roster.
But then Beth also offered me an invite to a luncheon as a part of the package.
Hmm… food + free TV DVD? How could I say no?
So last week, I caught up on the first two episodes of trust me and attended a luncheon with one of the show’s stars, Monica Potter. Schwing!
I loved so many parts of the show. It brought back memories of the days when I worked for a large PR firm, the cutthroat meetings, the last minute creative ideas, the stress!
And I really loved getting to see so many of my old blogfriends and chat with Ms. Potter (Monica?) in person. She was so hot and so, uhm normal? I’m not allowed to disclose all the stuff we dished about, but let’s just say, she’s really down to earth. I mean, she has three kids, ate the food on her plate AND held other people’s babies without worry they’d spit up on her.
Photo courtesy of the other Beth. Cute and astonishingly well-behaved babies courtesy of Steph and Sarah. Tall women relegated to the back of the photo courtesy of me and Jen.
By the end of it all I was so full (clam chowder, cheeseburger and creamed spinach will do it to you) I almost forgot I had to go home to a toddler rather than back to my office in the sky. But I think I found a new show to latch onto. I think I’ll have the time to fit it in. Trust me.
A random product I reviewed a long time ago (so long that I can’t even find it in my archives) staring at me from the bar where I was enjoying a drink called, “The Geisha.”
To my knowledge, Gloves in a Bottle is NOT a key ingredient to the Geisha drink.
Making it onto Alltop Moms. I can’t even believe I’m in the company listed on this site. I’m all the way at the bottom, but who cares, I’m there! (Thanks, Nicole.)
Kim, thanks for the button. That about sums it up for me too!
Seeingmanyfriends of minein theblogosphere meeting KATIE COURIC in NYC. Beth, next time you offer me a chance like this, remind me that my husband will always be there, while Katie may not be. You guys rock!!
Vacationing alone with hubby is overrated compared to meeting #1 female celebrity. Just kidding, honey.
That’s all until I get back from snowy paradise…
Edited to add: I SO did NOT meet Katie!! I think re-reading the caption it makes me sound like I did, but I didn’t. Just jealous of those that did. Next time I’ll get out of my vacation haze and proof before I write!
It’s always fun to see how celebrities are quoted about how they handle motherhood and work. So when I came across this story in USA Today I couldn’t resist quoting yet the newest working mom on the block – Julianna Margulies, who’s starring in a new show, Canterbury’s Law, this Monday night. In the series, she plays a ball-buster lawyer. In real life, she’s mom to six-week-old Kieran. I’m sure she was asked the obligatory, “how did you handle pregnancy and working?” question, which elicited this response:
I got pregnant by surprise at the end of April, and in May, we found out we were picked up. IÂ don’t want to be the working mother. We’ve seen it a million times. How do you juggle? And it is impossibly difficult, as I’m now finding out.
Furthermore, she was against writing her pregnancy into the show. Most times I find it irritating when celebrities wax poetic or give unrealistic advice about the beauty of working and raising their children on movie sets or whatever. So, thanks Julianna for keeping it real. It is impossible to juggle.
I just finished watching the premiere episode of TLC’s new show, “The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom,” and I have to be honest – I liked it way more than I thought I would. I knew plenty about the show after talking to the host, Tracey Gold, yesterday, but typically I don’t let my DVR record things [...]
I remember Tracey Gold most from her days as Carol Seaver on the ’80s hit “Growing Pains.” But Tracey, with her long career in acting, is much more than just a teenage superstar. Mother of three (with one on the way in 3 1/2 weeks!), Tracey has been through more ups and downs as a woman than anyone [...]
I just issued a directive to my husband but called him by my son’s name. Clearly, I’m spending too much time at home. Or, that I’m finally turning into my mother. I gotta do something about that. p.s. I’m so excited because I’m interviewing someone famous tomorrow about something pretty cool! Stay tuned – it’s [...]
I rarely get political on this blog, but Katie Couric’s 60 Minutes interview last night with Hillary Clinton has made me crawl out from under my keep-my-mouth-shut-about-all-things-political bunker. Uhm, what was up with that? Hil + KC = BFF I felt like I was watching a Barbara Walters Oscar special, not a serious interview with a candidate [...]
