Video Interview with Bryan McElwain

"Pretty Little Liars" Season 2, Episode 13, "The First Secret"

"The First Secret," which is episode 13 of the second season of "Pretty Little Liars," is a unique episode. This Halloween special is shot from Allison's point of view. This has not been done before since all of the other episodes take place after Allison's death. In this episode we find out how Allison knew about each of the other four girls' biggest secrets and we get to witness how she uses them to manipulate and bully the other four girls, Aria, Hanna, Spencer, and Emily. Allison finds out that Aria's father, Byron, is cheating on her mother, Ella, when Aria and Allison see Byron kissing one of his students, Merideth, in his car. Throughout the episode, Allison makes fun of Hanna's weight with several fat jokes and she knows that this is an issue that is taking a toll on Hanna's self-esteem. Allison threatens to tell Spencer's sister Melissa that Spencer kissed her boyfriend if Spencer does not mention this to Melissa within a timely manner. Also, at the Halloween party that the girls attend, Allison catches Emily staring at another girl while the girl dances and realizes that Emily is gay. Allison uses all the girls' secrets to control them and to make sure that she is in charge at all times. She knows that the girls will be loyal to her because they would not want her to reveal their secrets. I love this episode because we get a chance to see Allison without it being a flashback from one of the other girls' perspective and we get to see how things were while Allison was still alive. I cannot wait until the second half of season 2 begins!

"Dexter" Season 6, Episodes 2 and 3

As season 6 of Dexter progresses, the storyline gets more and more interesting.  In episode 2, Dexter's sister, Deb (Jennifer Carpenter), is promoted from Detective to Lt., rather than Sgt. Battista, as everyone expected. The former Lt., Laguerta (Lauren Velez), is promoted to Captain of Miami Metro. Deb is now the boss of her boyfriend, Quinn (Desmond Harrington). Dexter almost makes a mistake and kills a former murderer who has turned his life around and has become a minister who works as a mechanic. He follows the man and sees him put a body in the trunk of his car. Dexter is ready to kill the ex-con when dogs on the premises blow his cover and the ex-con sees Dexter. Just as Dexter is about to inject the ex-con with a tranquilizer, he sees the man who was thrown in the trunk, who he assumed was dead, leaning against a car smoking a cigarette. He was saved from making a crucial mistake by killing someone who he did not believe deserved to die according to his code. Also, Dexter finds out that his son Harrison knows about the box of blood slides that he keeps behind the air conditioner.

In episode 3, Quinn proposes to Deb, Deb says no to Quinn because she likes things the way they are and she is not ready to get married. Quinn packs Deb’s things and tells her to move out. He thinks she broke up with him because of her promotion and he can't handle it. Dexter finds an old serial killer that he followed when he was a kid, The Tooth Fairy/Ronny Cox, who got his name from pulling out one of the incisors of each victim, when he starts killing again after over twenty years. Dexter drops his box of blood slides that he keeps after he kills each victim. Now he has no way to know which slide belongs to who and there is no longer any order, which he tries so hard to keep in his life and in his killings. Dexter thinks about how he found out that the Tooth Fairy Killer only had a box of old teeth that he clung to after all those years. This may mean that Dexter realizes he does not need the slides and he might stop collecting them (as they only serve as a liability for him). Good episode. 3.5 remotes out of 5.

My Interview w/ Bryan McElwain

For my assignment this week, I interviewed my classmate, Bryan McElwain. Bryan is also a Communication Arts major at St. John's University and he plays in a band, so that means he's pretty cool. Here is an excerpt of the incredibly exciting and definitely not boring interview:

Q: What's your favorite thing to do when you're not studying?
A: ...I can't get it down to one, so I'm just gonna say... either playing the drums or guitar in the band that I play in or workin' out.

Q:What's your favorite movie?
A: My favorite movie is "The Departed." I like the director, Martin Scorsese. He's one of my favorite directors and it has a long list of stars in it. I like the storyline because there's no good guy or bad guy. It's all up to the person watching the movie.

Q:If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would play you and what kind of movie would it be?
A:Well, considering some of the insane things that have happened to me in my life, I would have to say it would be a comedy movie, so I might as well say that Ben Stiller would play me

Q: If you had only six months to live, what would you do?
A:If I had six months to live I would probably just travel the world.

Q: If you won 20 million dollars in the lottery, what would you spend it on?
A:I'd of course give a quarter of it to charity, another quarter of it to my parents, and I'd spend the rest on stuff that's probably gonna take a couple years off my life.

Listen to our 3 minute interview here:

"Glee" Season 3 Premiere, "The Purple Piano Project"

"Glee" is back with its third season. All the cast is back minus Sam (Chord Overstreet). Quinn (Diana Agron) got a makeover that was sort of MollyRingwaldinprettymuchanyJohnHughesdirectedteenangstflick-esque, for lack of a better term, Santana (Naya Rivera) was kicked out of the New Directions (the glee club), Mr. Shue (Matthew Morrison) is living with Emma (Jayma Mays), Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Rachel (Lea Michele) are trying to get into a theater group, and Kurt's boyfriend, Blaine (Darren Criss) is now a part of the New Directions, instead of the opposing glee club, The Warblers, in which he was a member last season, and Mercedes has a new boyfriend even though she had just started dating Sam in the last episode of last season and we never really got a chance to see them together.

In this episode, the songs performed were "We Got the Beat" by the Go-Go's, "You Can't Stop the Beat" from "Hairspray", "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones, "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead" from "The Wizard of Oz,"  a mash up of "Anything Goes" and "Anything You Can Do" from "Anything Goes" and "Annie Get Your Gun," and a horrid rendition of "Big Spender" by a New Directions wannabe, Sugar Motto. As the voiceover says every week, "And that's what you missed on 'Glee'."

The episode was a little boring, in my opinion, and some of the song choices were not great, so I would rate it 2.5 remotes out of 5, but I'm sure it will get better.

Dexter, Season 6, Season Premiere - "Those Kinds of Things"

Season six of "Dexter" premiered Sunday, October 2nd. Michael C. Hall is back as Dexter Morgan, the likable blood spatter analyst who "moonlights as a serial killer of criminals who he believes escaped justice," according to IMDb.com. This season, Dexter is trying to find a school for his son Harrison's first year and planning to attend his high school reunion. Dexter is given a suggestion for a Catholic school, recommended by Sgt. Batista (David Zayas). During the interview process, Dexter realizes that he has no religion and doesn't really believe in anything (as far as God). He realizes that he needs to make a decision for his son and figure out what he wants Harrison to believe in, so that he will be able to have a normal life, unlike his own. Dexter attends the reunion with an ulterior motive. We find out that Dexter only wants to find evidence to kill one of his classmates, who got away with murdering his own wife and setting it up to look like a suicide. By the end of the episode, we find out that Dexter is fine with "not believing in anything," as Dexter stated, but we learn that his views may be challenged by another serial killer who commits a murder laced with religious symbolism and clearly wants Dexter to pay attention to him. Overall, the episode was good. If I had to rate it, I would give it 3.5 remote controls out of 5.

America's Next Top Model All-Star Recap

This season, Cycle 17, of America's Next Top Model (ANTM) came back with a twist. Instead of the usual format in which 12 unknown models compete against each other to become America's Next Top Model, they decided to bring back fan favorites from past ANTM seasons. These models will compete each week until someone is named ANTM All-Star.

On the first episode, we found out which models were brought back as they moved into the house that they will live in. Their first photo shoot assignment was to portray an exaggerated version of themselves. Later, the girls were taken to panel with a live audience where the guest judge, rapper Nicki Minaj, helped critique each girl's photo as they came out on stage one by one. The judges not only examined each girl's photo, but the reaction that each girl got from the crowd. One of the audience members said that they did not remember cycle 4 contestant, Brittany, which landed her in the bottom two with Alexandria (Cycle 16) and ultimately sent her home. The problem that I have with this decision is the fact that Brittany is from CYCLE 4!!!!!!! This was 13 seasons ago. If that one does not remember her, the judges should not have held that against her. Also, that person who didn't know who she was must not have been a real fan because I knew exactly who Brittany was when I saw her since her personality on the show made her very memorable. I did not agree with the judges' decision and I was extremely disappointed that Brittany was the first person sent packing. Immediately after this, I rolled my eyes and turned to my suite mate to ask one simple question: Where's the remote?