This week, we review new shows like True Blood (HBO), Privileged (The CW) and Fringe (Fox), the season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox), and the last few episodes of The Closer (TNT), leading up to tonight's cliff-hanger season finale.

But first, we rave about how much we loved Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on SNL, and Lori reveals whether she, too, could see Russia from her house in Alaska!

Check back next week for a new episode of SMMWT!, and watch previous episodes here.

After a hectic summer schedule, Lori and I are back just in time to review the first week of the new fall shows, including: 90210 (The CW) and Raising the Bar (TNT), and returning favorites like Bones (Fox), America's Next Top Model (The CW), and Gossip Girl (The CW).

Plus, why parents should make their kids watch The Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABC Family), why Sarah likes Life (NBC), and why The Closer (TNT) is bugging Lori this season.

Check back next week for a new episode of SMMWT!, and watch previous episodes here.

On an Olivia cruise earlier this month, we grabbed a few minutes with Ellen DeGegeneres's mom Betty to ask her about Ellen's talk show, the infamous "puppy episode," and her work speaking to large corporations about gay rights.

Plus, Betty explains why she loves Will Smith and home improvement shows (even in France, I can't escape the power-drill talk!).

Check back next week in three weeks for a new episode of SMMWT!, and watch previous episodes here.

Entertainment Weekly just released their list of the new classic TV shows, movies, music, and books. So Lori and I — with guestbian Dee — decided to give you our take on the new TV classics.

We nominate some shows we all agree on (like Golden Girls), some we definitely don't (Arrested Development), and a few that might surprise you (Dawson's Creek).

Watch and see if you agree with our choices...

Let us know in the comments which shows you think future generations should watch, and why!

SMMWT! will be on a short break for the next few weeks while Lori and I are in France, but we'll be back with new episodes in late July. Watch previous episodes here.

In the middle of a loud New York thunderstorm, Dee (one half of Come With Me if You Want to Live) joins Lori and me in reviewing the debuts of Gimme Sugar (Logo) and In Plain Sight (USA), and the new seasons of Army Wives (Lifetime) and My Boys (TBS).

When we're not trying to find something nice to say about Gimme Sugar, we applaud the use of Native American actors on In Plain Sight, the last-minute twist on the second-season opener of Army Wives, and the fact that My Boys' PJ is not a lesbian.

Along the way, we raise questions like, is America over reality TV? Do I know way too much random trivia about Mary McCormack? Will Dee ever get a word in edgewise?

We also discuss what we've been doing so far on our summer vacation; what a reality series of our lives would look like; and which dogs are the most dangerous (hint: it's not the ones you think!).

Let us know what you think of these shows, and what a reality show about your life would look like, in the comments!

Watch previous episodes of She Made Me Watch This!, and check back next Monday for a new episode.

This episode of SMMWT! is all about women in sports movies! The ones we like, anyway...

Not included? The recent soccer movie Gracie (kinda disappointing), Million Dollar Baby (too depressing), and lots of ice skating movies (whole 'nother genre). Plus probably whatever movie is your favorite, which I'm sure you'll let us know in the comments.

You'll also learn how Lori met one of her tennis idols, why you'll never catch her on a surf board, and what movie the Chariots of Fire theme song makes me think of (hint: Wally World!).

Special thanks to Kayla Jones for the new SMMWT! graphics!

Gearing up for the summer action movies, Lori and I list our favorite female action heroes of all time, from Bridget Fonda in Point of No Return (1993) to Halle Berry in Die Another Day (2002) to Michelle Yeoh in three movies, including the upcoming Mummy one.

Along the way, we lament the lack of non-martial arts roles for Asian American actresses, debate whether Harry Potter's Hermione can properly be considered an "action hero," and argue over the value of women in Bond movies.

Plus: which female action heroes were the most groundbreaking? Check out our answers, and then let us know if you agree in the comments.

… continue reading

What do Will Smith, Meryl Streep, Gillian Anderson, Steve Carrell, Cate Blanchett, and the young girl from Akele and the Bee have in common? They're all starring in movies we want to see this summer. (Archeology! Singing! Football! Not all in the same movie, fortunately.)

In this episode of SMMWT!, Lori and I discuss which movies coming out this summer we really want to see — and which ones we definitely don't. (One word: Baghead. Yes, that's right, it's a movie about a guy wearing a paper bag over his head. 'Nuff said.)

As you can tell by my voice and vague resemblance to road kill, I'm still recovering from the cold I got at Dinah, so please bear with me if I seem a little low-key. I'll be back up to full-speed soon, so enjoy my slower pace while it lasts (I know Lori is!).

What summer movies are you most looking forward to? Chime in in the comments!

This week on She Made Me Watch This!, we welcome AfterEllen.com vloggers Bridget McManus and Karman Kregloe of You Can't Take Them Anywhere! (and, of course, Brunch with Bridget and We're Getting Nowhere) for a cut throat friendly game of lesbian TV and movie trivia. Since we were all in town for Dinah Shore Weekend, why not get unnecessarily competitive have some fun with one another?

I conned my sister Autumn into moderating the game, and she did her best at maintaining some semblance of order and fair play. (She knows how lesbians can be.) I won't spoil it for you, but let's just say that some of us so-called "lesbian pop culture experts" knew a little less about obscure lesbian films and Buffy the Vampire Slayer than might be expected.

If you'd like to play along with us, get your pen and paper, your poker chips, and practice your smack talk. If possible, have a swimming pool handy to dunk your losing opponent.

AfterEllen.com's managing editor Malinda Lo guest-stars on this episode of She Made Me Watch This!, which is dedicated to answering the TV and movie questions you left in the comments last week. Questions like:

• Is Cashmere Mafia / Life / The Sarah Connor Chronicles being renewed for another season?
• Why are good pilots sometimes not picked up?
• How could Bionic Woman have been fixed?
• What goes into determining whether a TV show/season is released on DVD?

We also discuss our favorite L Word storylines from this season, and which shows we're most excited about returning in April.

Plus Malinda and I get into a lively punctuation argument (I blame the British!), and the bunny injured in last week's episode makes her first on-camera appearance since the accident.

As promised, Lori and I are finally back on the interweb with a new episode of She Made Me Watch This!

This week, we talk about that ridiculous lesbian kiss in the Lipstick Jungle season finale; the new Judy Greer comedy Miss Guided; Marlee Matlin and Kristi Yamaguchi on Dancing with the Stars; the status of the queer women currently on Survivor and Top Chef; and the tragedy that was Marvita's haircut on America's Next Top Model (A mullet, Tyra? Really?)

We also wander off-topic to discuss how Lori spent her time in Alaska; why the apartment is completely re-arranged every time I come home from work these days; and how I supposedly don't treat my iPods very well (is it my fault they don't like being dropped?). There's also a near-miss with one of the bunnies that gives Lori a mild heart attack on-camera. Good times!

One apology: Because we had to marathon the last few episodes of Lipstick Jungle in order to talk about it for the vlog, we didn't get started on filming this until late in the evening, and by the time we got to a decent take, we were more than a little sleepy (I think it was around 2am). So we're sorry if our energy was a little low on this one — we're definitely going to start earlier next time!

Speaking of next time — if there's interest, we thought we'd add a segment at the end of SMMWT! answering reader questions related to TV and movies (so, not questions about AfterEllen.com in general or personal advice questions, more like "when is X show coming out on DVD?" and "why did they cancel [fill in the blank], or "What do you think of the show Y?"). So if you have any questions like that, please feel free to leave them in the comments and we'll try to answer them in the next episode or two.

This weekend, I convinced Lori to leave Alaska for a few days and meet me in L.A. just to film a special 2008 Oscars edition of She Made Me Watch This! (OK, that's not really why I wanted to see her — but we thought we'd squeeze in a vlog while we were there.)

Since we've seen almost none of the movies nominated this year, we invited Bridget McManus and Karman Kregloe to join us for the post-Oscars analysis in our hotel room (hence the bad lighting) — Bridget because she's actually seen the movies, and Karman, because, well, she's fun to have around (Bridget's not exactly terrible company, either).

Naturally, the vlog got away from us only a few minutes in, with Bridget doing an interpretive dance, me ranting about discrimination against blondes, and Karman smacking Bridget upside the head for making fun of her Stevie Nicks infatuation. Lori mostly just tried to stay out of harm's way.

If you don't mind Oscar coverage that's only 30 percent about the Oscars, then this is definitely the vlog episode for you! If you want substantive Oscars coverage, read Dorothy Snarker's entertaining and informative Best of Oscar's 80th blog post. Or do both, and you'll probably have more fun than you did actually watching the Oscars (honestly, if I had to watch one more performance from Enchanted, someone was going to lose an eye!)

Look for the next new SMMWT! episode in mid-March, when Lori finally returns to New York (yay!).

It's the Cashmere Mafia edition of She Made Me Watch This! In this episode, Lori and I analyze what works and what doesn't in the first two episodes of the new ABC drama series, including:

• what changes were made from the original pilot
• why we love Caitlin and the way Bonnie Somerville plays her
• why we hate what the writers have done to Zoe's character
• Juliet's makeover, and what's still missing in her story line
• Mia's bad pirate sleeves, and good mentoring skills
• the wonder of spreadsheets and their many uses
• lots and lots of Caitlin and Alicia!

We also show some of the lesbian story line scenes, and Lori gives tips for succeeding in the workplace (here's one: don't sleep with co-workers!).

And we wear business suits! In memory of the days when we actually had to wear something besides jeans to work.

In our first video blog of 2008, Lori and I review a handful of new movies, including the Denzel Washington-led drama The Great Debaters; the new Will Smith sci-fi flick I Am Legend; Helen Hunt's directorial debut Then She Found Me, which also stars Bette Middler and Colin Firth; and a little-known girls basketball movie Believe in Me, based on a true story of a team in Kansas in the 1950s (you know what a sucker I am for sports movies!).

We also share what we did during the holiday break, and why you'll never catch us doing improv. … continue reading

This week Lori and I are all about reviewing the new movies — new in theaters, and new on DVD. From Ellen Page's fantastic turn in Juno and Keri Russell's yummy pies in Waitress, to Nicole Kidman's wasted efforts in The Golden Compass and the Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep talkfest Lions for Lambs, we show you scenes from the movies and give you our take on whether they're worth watching (don't worry, nothing too spoilery!).

And then there's Megan Fox's mechanically gifted girl-with-an-attitude character in Transformers, an entertaining action movie with surprisingly good female roles. A woman who can fix our car, battle killing machines, and look effortlessly beautiful, all at the same time? We're in! … continue reading