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Dana Davis Added to the Cast of "Heroes"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:30:49 PDT

Having recently starred on the ill-fated summertime teen drama "Hidden Palms," Dana Davis must be pretty stoked to have landed her next gig: playing "a new hot young hero" named Monica on "Heroes."

According to Hollywood Reporter, Monica's powers are being shrouded in secrecy, but they do offer up this fairly unhelpful clue: "It is understood that Davis' character, Monica, would give up everything to help the people around her." Um, okay. So that could be... anything. Well, paired with all the other "Heroes" casting news this summer, it sounds like they're assembling a pretty kickass cast of characters for "Volume 2" of the show, which is scheduled to start September 24.

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"Hidden Palms" Recap: Episode 108 "Second Chances"

Molly — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:00:00 PDT

Farewell, "Hidden Palms," we hardly knew ye. The final episode of HP was, in a nutshell, anticlimactic -- though I supposed I couldn't ask for anything more. So let take one last look at a world where hormones run rampant and bit parts on "The OC" lead to further acting careers.

The episode starts with Liza commissioning Johnny to find out what Skip Matthews knows about Eddie's death. This seems easy, you know, considering Skip's not shady at all. We quickly move over to Cliff's mom, who wants to talk about walking in on him with Maria Nolan, Eddie's mom. Obvs, Cliff is not to blame, he's an innocent high school boy after all! Meanwhile Maria Nolan is watching video on Eddie's laptop of the two of them fighting, presumably that fateful Halloween night. Here's what else went down, in mostly bullet point form:

Johnny's mother is freaking out because (surprise!) she realizes she rushed into her new marriage. Blah blah blah, after some heartfelt conversations, some Izzy Stevens style baking and some urging from Johnny she realizes that Bob is actually a good guy. She is now free of the painful memory of her dead husband. Yay.

Nikki starts to work at the country club, where Cliff tries to win her back with a series of "public declarations of affection." In the end they get together, because she is all for second chances. At what point were we supposed to start liking Cliff? Is it because he's so dreamy? Also, why was the final kiss between these two so much more believable than anything between Johnny & Greta? Just saying.
Greta confronts her dad about Maria killing Eddie, which Skip somehow turns into Greta being upset about her own mother's death. Apparently it was a leeetle bit shady, too. Cliff is all of a sudden in on the plot and tries to steel Eddie's laptop from Maria Nolan -- who flips out.
Why did it take 3/4 of the episode for Johnny to confront Liza about sleeping with Eddie? I thought it was a big deal, but it's basically a throwaway moment. Boo.
Skip comes to Maria Nolan's house to threaten/assault her. He tells her she's totally worthless, done, alone. He also told her that they "haven't been anything for years," despite her pleading that she sacrificed everything for him.
Liza sneaks over to steal Eddie's Laptop from Maria Nolan's house, but instead stumbles upon....Maria Nolan's dead body. She shot herself (or did she...?). Why was this moment not more dramatic? It was just like "Oh, Maria's dead. I guess that solves that." Eddie asks Johnny if this helps, you know, since this has always been about his father. Or something. So, that's that, Maria Nolan killed her son, and then herself...
...Or did she. We see Greta's dad walking away with Eddie's computer. The series ends with Johnny opening an email attachment. It's the video Maria Nolan had been watching of her fighting with Eddie the night he died. In comes Greta's dad, someone pulls a gun (did we ever come to terms with how the gun got there int he first place?), there is a struggle in which Eddie basically accuses Skip of killing Greta's mom. And then, Skip shoots Eddie....So there's your twist. Satisfied?

And that, my friends, is that. Anyone watching all the way through? Final thoughts? Guilty pleasure or no pleasure at all? Did the end (or, really, any of it) make sense? Did you like any of the characters? Mostly though, this is getting me very excited for "Gossip Girl!"

Photos courtesy The CW

"Hidden Palms" Recap: Episode 106 "Dangerous Liasons" & 107 "Stand By Your Woman"

Molly — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:13:00 PDT

If there's one thing to be said about "Hidden Palms" it's that they understand the most prevalent things in teenagers' lives: Hormones...and murder, but definitely hormones. This week (sorry for the late posting, blame TiVo as usual) we got two more episodes ending with quite the cliffhanger for next week's season (fine, series) finale. So lets get to the major plot points (kinda ignoring the parents stuff - they are so not the Cohens:

Last week we left off with Cliff making out with Eddie's mom...which is about where we picked up this time. Apparently Mrs. Eddie has a jealous side, because she looked a little pissy when Cliff alluded to his relationship with Nicky.

From there: HORMONES! Annnnnd scandal. Check out what else went down on the HP just

Over in Johnny/Greta lover land, Casanova wastes no time showing Greta that he has her bloody Halloween costume. Johnny even pulls the "if you care about me you'll tell me the truth." How after school special about date rape! Naturally, Greta says Eddie was dead by the time they got there, he had already killed himself, she was worried, Cliff promised he would destroy the dress. Johnny clearly sees this as reason enough to keep making out with her. Fair enough.

The big event of the episode is Tess' (Cliff's mom) birthday - wheeee. While setting up, Greta confronts Cliff about keeping the dress, so Cliff promptly runs home to freak out. Kinda suspect. Cliff hops next door to bring up the dress with Johnny, claiming they just wanted to avoid all the sleeping together scandal coming out. However, Cliff also says that Greta was already there when he showed up the night Eddie died. Hmmmm.

Cliff continues his tour of the 'hood by stopping off at Liza's garage. Convenient that all the shots in there are supposed to be sinister and it's in the only place in the house that stays dark all the time. He makes some allusions to the fact that she was in love with Eddie. She then realizes that he dress is gone from her closet (though we know Johnny has it).

At the party, Cliff is there with Nikki, but is promptly seduced in the bedroom by Eddie's mom. Obvs, Nikki sees it - and then breaks it off with Cliff. She also tells Johnny. Plot thickening.

Liza freaks out to Johnny about the dress, but he would much rather make out with Greta than admit to taking it. Oh! In the only bit of exciting parent-y news, Johnny's step dad punches Greta's dad for dancing with the mom. (Side note: the actress who plays Liza is pretty awesomely bad.)

The episode ends with Greta's dad and Eddie's mom meeting up, he says he came back to town as soon as she asked and she says "we have a problem...." And now, the next episode. Recapping a murder mystery gets wordy, huh?

Let's keep this short for real. It becomes clear early on that Greta's dad and Eddie's mom had a sinister hand in things. He is mad at her for being "visible" again after he had agreed to make things go away. She is uncomfortable that people are asking questions about Eddie's death.

Johnny promises to stop questioning Greta since he knows Cliff has a movie (sleeping with the moms) - so he gives her back the bloody dress. Smart. She has a weird conversation with her dad about the night Eddie died and then hypothesizes to Johnny that maybe Eddie's mom really had more to lose and has more of a motive.

They all go to Jimmy Jo's drag show. Obvs.

Cliff tries to break it off with Eddie's mom and get back with Nikki, but the drag queens aren't having it. Sassy! Meanwhile Mrs. Eddie threatens her with a video - which she later slips under his door. Which drives Greta's dad to more drinking.

Cliff makes out with Nikki and then with Eddie's mom. Cliff's mom walks in. Awkward.

The episode ends with the biggest shocker yet: Johnny sneaks into Liza's garage and is watching her video from inside Eddie's room then night he died. It's of Eddie in bed with a girl....AND IT'S LIZA!!! Crazy, right? I did not see that coming!

What do you think happened? Greta's dad totally shot him...right? Anyone else still watching? I'm very excited for next week...too bad it's airing on the 4th of July.

"Hidden Palms" Recap: Episode 104, "What Liza Beneath" & Episode 105, "Mulligan"

Molly — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:14:27 PDT

Oh, "Hidden Palms", I love you dearly, but why do you insist on making so little sense sometimes? Anyway, considering The CW's decision to rush through the rest of HP and promptly try to erase it from the public consciousness as quickly as possible (which I will do my darnedest to stop), they've taken to airing two episodes in a row on Wednesday nights until they plow through the 8 episodes...so there's like 2 more weeks. In the interest of time and sticking to the juicy deliciousness rather than the boring nonsense, I will keep this recap short (ish, sorry, it's two hours), sweet....and all about raging teenage hormones. Yeeeees:

First off, this means that I will mostly be ignoring the Parents' role in this story. Because unlike The OC, the parents on HP are boring.

Since last week's episode ended with Greta breaking it off with Johnny, this week's started with Johnny putzing around Liza's place, where Liza is still hiding that she is 08Nova. Johnny then heads off to find Eddie's mom, who Cliff tells him still lives in the area and split with Eddie's dad right after their son's death. Predictably, Eddie's mom doesn't really want to chat about her dead son. Somehow though, this makes Eddie's mom want to reemerge onto the HP scene, stopping by the club and having an oddly awkward conversation with Cliff & Greta. Innnnnteresting. Onto the hormones, just

Nikki is still around, and still flirting with Cliff. In fact, while she lives with Johnny's cross-dressing sponsor, she spends her days making out with Cliff in the desert while he purposefully messes up his mom's boyfriend's car, and making out with Cliff in the pool in front of the whole community. Yay! (Quick aside: How much cuter is Cliff than when he was on "The OC"?? Seriously, pretty darn hot, if I do say so myself. Hard to hate.) Later, Travis tries to beat up Cliff for messing with the car, Cliff's mom pulls out her gun. Bye bye Travis.

Meanwhile, Greta finally fesses up about the night Eddie died: She had slept with Cliff the night before. Eddie found out. He killed himself. Obviously, this makes Johnny hot and in the next scene the two of them immediately reconnect and start making out like....wait for it...teenagers. Ah, young love.

The first episode ends as Johnny stops by Liza's to chat and sees in the reflection of a mirror that she is wearing a sweatshirt that says 08Nova on the back. Seriously, though, who has a sweatshirt with their screenname on the back of it? Nerdtastic!

The second episode last night starts with Liza giving her story about the night Eddie died -- she saw Cliff & Greta running out of Eddie's place, she called the cops, but they never showed. She wonders where the note is as Eddie documented everything (like his blog!). Duh duh duh. The plot thickens.

Johnny is baffled and confused and runs off to see Greta to ask about the note. She says he left one and pulls out said note, which consists of a morbid Tennyson poem. Satisfied, the two make out some more. Greta's dad shows up. Until then it never seemed all that odd that she lives alone in a mansion (her mom died too, remember).

When confronted with the Tennyson story, Liza balks saying that Eddie hated Tennyson and never would have used someone else's words to express his feelings. Once again, Johnny is confused.

Always the wily one, Liza breaks into Cliff's room to snoop, but ends up caught in his closet when he comes in to make it with Nikki. So original! Post-coitus, Nikki bolts, Cliff follows, and just as Liza is about to make her escape she looks under the creaky closet floorboard to find something! What is it?!?!

Some stuff about a golf tournament, some of Johnny's step dad not being such a creep after all. Cliff threatens Liza. Yada yada yada.

How does it all end?

1. After telling Nikki about his "soft chewy center" Cliff whisks her home after his "mom" calls and tells him to come home. But who is it really? Eddie's mom! And they start making out! They were doing it, too!

2. Greta's drunken jerky father makes it clear that while he is a deadbeat, he also "made it all go away" after Eddie's death and somehow orchestrated the cops "immediately ruling it a suicide." I knew there had to be a reason there was never a police investigation at all.

3. Liza shows Johnny what she found in Cliff's room: Greta's Halloween costume (remember, that's the night Eddie died) covered in blood.

Wow, I'm still totally guiltily loving this show, but am I the only one? Come on, it's so terrible it's awesome, right?!?! What do you think really happened to Eddie?

Photo Courtesy of The CW

TV Tonight: "Hidden Palms"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:30:00 PDT

I've already told you about the worst part of the CW's decision to speed up the "Hidden Palms" season - namely that it means the show isn't likely to be back next year. But tonight, we get to experience the best part for the first time: A veritable "Hidden Palms" event, with two soapy episodes airing back to back.

We'll be more than halfway through the season by the end of the night, and judging from the previews, the show's starting to move faster toward solving the mystery of Eddie's death. In the first episode, Johnny decides to track down Eddie's mom. In the second, Greta's creepy dad shows up and raises even more suspicion about the night Eddie died. Hmm, it's starting to sound like we're being set up for a big! shocking! conclusion! on July 4, doesn't it? To watch clips from both of tonight's episodes,

Photo courtesy of The CW

"Hidden Palms" Recap: Episode 103, "Party Hardy"

Molly — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:57:34 PDT

Let me get this out of the way - I love "Hidden Palms" but it is awful. Just bad. That being said, I'm completely hooked and kinda devastated that The CW is rushing through the rest of the episodes (and airing the finale on July 4th, WTF) because it's doing so poorly. Sadly, I think these 8 episodes may be all we ever see of our, okay my, beloved HP. Anyone else still watching?

Last night's episode of HP taught me one big lesson: the writers of this show want really really badly to be hip to the internet, but they're not. Like at all. Not only do they not know the difference between email and IM, but this quote from Nikki is just classic. I can't even really explain it, because it hurts my mindgrapes that an entire group of writers for a teen drama show know so little about their subject matter. Nikki, on finding out more about Eddie through his (obviously defunct) video blog:

"Go to his webpage to check out his buddy list!"

What does that even mean? IM/email/webpages are not all the same thing. Seriously, not one of the members of the cast/crew who were involved with this could help on that?!? Sooo annoying, and I can't imagine I'm the only person who noticed.

Sadly for The Little CW Teen Drama That Couldn't, last night's episode was the most boring yet. That being said, there were some great moments, and some fisticuffs! Plus, we finally learned who that pesky 08nova is!!! So to read the rest of my recap and see some more shots from the show just

Near the beginning (after some pointless stuff) Johnny confronts Greta about the Eddie situation and the creepy IMs. Greta says it's probably Cliff, who is a crazy prankster and then wanders away...to find Cliff who she promptly tells to stop harassing Johnny or else she will reveal the truth. Cliff makes a comment about Johnny not wanting her if he ever actually found out the truth. She slaps him. Scandalous.
Blah blah blah, Cliff's mom's boyfriend who moved into their house is a jerk who likes to lie about being in the NFL and is probably cheating on Cliff's mom. At least it led to a moderately funny technology-related joke in which Cliff made mention that Tavis should "Google himself sometime."
Liza has a huge crush on Johnny and not very many friends. Duh.

That night, Johnny's mom and step dad go to a party and Johnny runs off to deal with Greta, leaving Nikki alone in the house. So what does she do when her friends show up to pick her up a night early? Throw a huge party. With booze. Gasp.
Meanwhile, in Johnny and Greta land, she's still being shady saying things like "a lot of stuff happened before you got here." Eventually in the episode, she kinda maybe breaks up with him. Yawn city.
Little Liza gets her nerve up and shows up at the party, which has spiraled out of control in the way only TV/Movie high school parties can. Awwww, so cute!
Johnny comes home, is pissed, gets in a fight with Cliff. Then his parents show up, get pissed, are all disappointed. Etc. Etc. Predictable
AND THEN, the only interesting part of this episode!!! Back at his computer, Johnny is ceremoniously deleting pics of Greta from his hard drive (and heart) when he gets an IM from 08nova. He looks up to see if Cliff is at the computer, which he is not. Johnny asks "Eddie" why he killed himself, to which he replies "I DIDN'T. I WAS MURDERED!" (Seriously, dude, no need to yell.) The shot then pans away to 08nova shutting his laptop and we see...its...LIZA! The quiet sciencey girl across the street who has been in the periphery the whole time. Duh duh duh. The plot thickens.

So what did you guys think? Predictable? Do you find Nikki's plot as boring as I do? Don't you think Cliff is too cute (and looking way better than he did as Zach on "The OC") to stay mad at? Anyone still watching?

And what do you think happened with Greta/Cliff/Eddie?

Photos courtesy of The CW

"Hidden Palms" Ending Earlier than Planned

BuzzSugar — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 11:37:18 PDT

The news: "Hidden Palms" will be wrapping up its season earlier than planned, airing two episodes per night next Wednesday and the Wednesday after that. The finale is now scheduled for July 4. The CW also will no longer show repeats of the show on Sunday nights.

The good: Less waiting to solve the mystery of Eddie's death. Also, at least all eight episodes are still scheduled to air sometime.

The bad: The ratings for the show haven't been good, and the CW doesn't seem to have much confidence that they'll get better. And I can't imagine anyone's going to watch the finale on the 4th; even the greatest guilty pleasures can't compete with fireworks.

The bottom line: If ratings don't pick up dramatically, I think it's safe to say this will be our only season in Palm Springs.

Photo courtesy of The CW

"Hidden Palms" Recap: Episode 102, "Ghosts"

BuzzSugar — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:23:47 PDT

The second episode of "Hidden Palms", the mainly not enjoyable guilty summer pleasure picks up back in Palm Springs where Johnny is successfully settling into his new home, but still not getting along with his mom or new step-dad. He's working the fake MySpace flirtation with Greta and making his way around the social epicenter of Palm Springs -- the pool. Johnny's mind is still pretty wrapped up in figuring out Eddie's death, but first there are rehab reunions to be had and raging high school parties to attend. Ahhhh, nighttime teen soap opera drama. Gotta love it. To read more all about it just

The episode featured an awful lot of beautiful shots of the kids languishing by pool, which is, of course, to be expected. While there, Cliff casually tries to dissuade Johnny from pursuing Greta with such convincing gems as, "Greta's hot and cold," and "she was Eddie's girl." Then Cliff drops the bombshell: Eddie committed suicide in Johnny's room.

Presumably to get his mind of things, Johnny heads off to an AA meeting where he divulges to his future-sponsor Jesse Jo that he doesn't want to be that sober guy in high school," I'm only 16 - I have plenty of time to get sober." Jesse Jo encourages Johnny to make some sober friends when, almost like it was planned, along comes Nicky, a friend of Johnny's from rehab. Nicky flirts, the two kiss, Greta sees. Groundbreaking stuff.

Back at home Johnny has a bit of a justified hissy fit at his step-dad, Bob, about buying a house where a kid killed himself. Pretty insensitive move considering Johnny ended up in rehab after seeing his father do the same thing. Thankfully Johnny's mom finally does something redeemable and sides with her son. After storming off to his room, Johnny has an ominous IM conversation with an anonymous source with the screenname Nova08 warning him to be careful. Naturally, he assumes it's Cliff, but the IM creepster swears that is not the case.

The next day before a big country club party (which was so much cooler when it happened on The OC at the Cohen's house) Johnny and Greta took a drive into the sunset to, you know, bond. Greta reveals that she, too, has a deceased parent while Johnny opens up about rehab. Anyway, onto the party.

Johnny arrives with Nicky at the country club and they are escorted to the not-so-secret teenage drinking bash by adorably-dorky Liza. At the party Johnny heads off to find Greta while Nicky hits the bottle. Hard. So much for rehab. Cliff is generally creepy, Nicky dances on stage and has to be carried back to Johnny's house. After putting her to sleep, Johnny and Greta have a tender moment and kiss in the doorway. Awwww.

As he is getting ready for bed, with visions of Greta dancing in his head, an IM pops up on Johnny's computer. It's the Nova08 sending him a link. Up pops a video of a dude in a creepy mask. Just as Johhny realizes the video takes place in the very seat he is currently sitting, the man in the video takes off his mask. "Hi, I'm Eddie. And Welcome to My World."

And, scene. I thought it was along the same lines as the first episode -- kinda awful, but I'm still totally into it. Plus, the ending cliffhanger was surprising, even if movies/tv shows that try to work in technology like instant messenger usually end up pretty lame. What did you think?

Photos courtesy of The CW

TV Preview: "Hidden Palms"

BuzzSugar — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:32:07 PDT

When I first heard "Hidden Palms," the new CW show that premieres tonight at 8 p.m., described as "Desperate Housewives" crossed with "Dawson's Creek," I figured it would be the perfect breezy, cheesy show for summer.

The good news: "Hidden Palms" is, in fact, a lot like "Desperate" meets "Dawson's." The bad news: It combines the worst parts of those shows, aiming for dark and mysterious but often veering into a poorly written, over-acted mess. Still, there's something weirdly compelling about the show, even if it turns out to be a series I laugh at rather than laugh with.

"Hidden Palms" centers on Johnny (played by Taylor Handley, best known as Oliver from "The OC"), a just-out-of-rehab teen whose family moves to Palm Springs to get a fresh start after Johnny's father's traumatizing suicide. On the outside, it's all plastic surgery and palm trees; on closer inspection, the town is teeming with scandals - chief among them the death of the kid who used to live in Johnny's house. Johnny's introduction to Palm Springs life comes when Cliff (Michael Cassidy, another "The OC" native, Zach), the popped-collar-sporting potential sociopath next door, throws a disembodied plastic hand through Johnny's window. To see where the show can possibly go from there and watch a clip from the first episode,

Shows like this must always have a girl, and in this case, it's Greta (Amber Heard), an inscrutable blonde who runs through the sprinklers on the golf course and says lots of supposedly deep things that actually just sound like nonsense. She and Johnny have a flirtation that mainly involves stealing each other's stuff, and despite Cliff's warnings that Greta is trouble, Johnny's clearly going to fall for her. (Cliff, by the way, kicks puppies, so he's not the most trustworthy adviser anyway.) Add in a few overly rich mothers and a girl who blows up stuff in her chemistry lab, and that's pretty much Palm Springs for ya.

The show comes to us from "Dawson's" creator Kevin Williamson and "My So-Called Life" executive producer Scott Winant, so I suppose it's no surprise that the show is filled with faux-intelligent, "nobody really talks like that!" dialogue. Those earlier shows had better acting than this one, where it feels like the teens are taking all their cues from daytime soaps; in fact, it's almost bad enough to make me wonder if "Hidden Palms" was meant to be a satire of teen shows. Overall, the whole thing feels suspiciously like an '80s movie.

Then again, '80s movies - even the really bad ones - are cult classics for a reason, and I could see "Hidden Palms" developing a following. And, grudgingly, I might be among them; even though the show wasn't the guilty pleasure I was hoping for, it sucked me in just enough that I'm not tuning it out just yet. Check out this clip, then let me know: Will you be watching?