Closing Thoughts on The Nanny

The Nanny is ending its run on nick@nite this week, and it will be moving to TV Land. I remember watching it last year, and getting hooked in to the show. I liked most stuff about it. I’m able to watch the show with Fran’s voice. I’m able to watch it with all the celebrity  guests. I’m able to deal with the (slighty) cliche plots. I’m able to deal with the nineties-centric clothing. But there’s one thing I’m unable to deal with: The length of the series.

The show lasted six seasons, which is a lot for most shows, especially since lots of sitcoms can’t get picked up past the pilot or first twelve episodes. I think the series has too many things going on in the last two seasons, specifically (In white for spoilers):

• Fran and Maxwell get engaged and married within eight episodes.
• Yetta gets engaged to to Sammy, played by Ray Charles.
• Maggie thinks she’s pregnant.
• Fran thinks she’s pregnant, but it turns out she wasn’t.
• Fran really is pregnant a couple of episodes later. This time for real. :P And she’s having twins.
• Max is asked to move to California, to make one of his plays a sitcom.
• Niles proposes to C.C., she rejects him.
• Maggie gets married.
• Niles tries to propose again.
• Fran gives birth to twins.
• Niles and C.C. get married in Fran’s delivery room and C. C. is pregnant.
• The Sheffields move to California.

Yeah, all that happened in two seasons. I’m not sure if the show got cancelled, or if Fran Drescher wanted it to end, or what, but I’d like to see another season so all these events wouldn’t seem so shoehorned and stuff. Alternatively, the producers could’ve write Fran and Max’s romance into the series earlier, and stop with all the “Will they or won’t they?” moments earlier.

But um, farewell Fran and the rest. See you on TV Land.

What’s really Wrong with the Jersey Shore

Being from New Jersey, the show Jersey Shore is somewhat personal. They gave our state a bad name, more traffic in the summer, and a reputation for having promiscuous tourists. But those stuff don’t annoy me as much as a certain thing. No, I’m not talking about the tanning promotions, or the stereotyping of Italians, but some other stuff.

Specifically, the Unfortunate Implications of this show.

To those who don’t watch it, the show’s just about 8 people living together and clubbing and stuff.  Cameras roll while they’re drunk, or dancing, or telling each other off. What happens in the nightclub is the part which annoys me about this show.

If the guys see a girl who’s ugly in the clubs (As in, not a supermodel), they’ll call the girl a grenade. The phrase describes people who are hideous, like EA/Maxis Sims hideous. They don’t stop at insulting these people in front of national television, though. They also dance with these ‘grenades’, and kiss them, and even take them home! If these girls are ‘so ugly’, then why are you leading them on? And for the record, these guys are jerks in general, and they only have six-pack abs. Since when does having a good beach body give you permission to insult people on national television?

And on another note, I just saw a commercial for My Wife and Kids getting welcomed to nick@nite with…. a George Lopez marathon. As if it’s not on enough. Fare well, Fran.

Farmville Update

So last time when I posted about Farmville, it was just complaints. But since July, Farmville kind of… improved to me. In the past few months, they’ve had some more sets, and there have been more decorations and buildings that cost coins, not money.

There also is a new Farmer’s Market thing which lets Farmers use their crops to make goods- (No, not those kinds of goods.) wine, baked goods, and perfume. The only complaint I have is that I chose the bakery option out of process of elimination (I thought it would be awkward to be making alcohol stuff as a teen and I thought it would be weird to be making perfume as a guy), and the crops you need for the bakery aren’t what I plant (They mostly are in the hour ranges, while I prefer the “day” ones). Yeah, sure, you could still find the crops on the market as long as your friends have them, but Farmville isn’t as popular as it used to be, so that’s still hard.

They recently updated the storage system. Before, you’d have to buy some big sheds or barns to hide some items, and these sheds weren’t really decorative, and you’d have a hard time hiding seasonal items like Jack-o’-lanterns or Christmas trees. Now it’s easier to store stuff with the cellar.

They also have a pigpen buildable, which is relatively easy compared to the past stuff. You only need 24 things, as opposed to the past 50 items.

Overall, these changes are for the better, and I’m beginning to like Farmville again.

Random Updates

1) I got rid of more custom content but my game didn’t go really faster. To be fair, I’m in Legacy mode for the Timbersons and the family’s… big. I’m in Generation H/8 now, so only two generations left. Once I finish, I’m prolly going to play a non-legacy game. Hopefully that will go faster.

2) Last time I play The Sims 3 was Sunday. I’ve been doing AP summer reading.

3) I’ve been watching way more TV than playing so there will probably be more TV show posts.

4) Is the tag for “Video Games” redundant? I mostly use it for The Sims 3, with some exceptions for Zoo Tycoon 2 and Farmville.

Melissa & Joey Review

Last week, I talked about Melissa & Joey, ABC Family’s latest attempt at a sitcom. I also happened to watch another episode of the show yesterday.

The show is pretty good, and I actually laughed a bit. Yeah sure, it was mostly chuckles, but it was still funny.

I’m kind of annoyed, though, at the show for not giving either of the kids (or more accurately, teens) personalities yet. Lennox seems to just be the “Angsty teenage daughter niece”, while Ryder seems to be the “Annoying younger brother/nephew”. To be honest, I don’t even think I’ve seen Ryder do much in the three episodes. Yeah, sure, the show’s called Melissa & Joey, and not Melissa & Joey & Lennox & Ryder,  or Lennox & Ryder, but still, at least give the kids a personality!

In the third episode, Lennox gives herself a haircut, which goes horrible, and she has to wear a hat (pictured right), but they don’t really talk about it. Like, it’s not a side-plot or anything. It’s just there.

 

I guess I give the show some credit for not just splitting the kids in a separate side plot, but still, if the show’s about a male nanny, you’d think they’d be focusing on the kids he’s taking care of!

Overall, though, I would say this show’s good. Melissa and Joey (How many times have I said those two names?) is pretty good for something on ABC Family. Unlike “Pretty Little Liars” or “Huge”, Mel and Joey (And Rider and Lennox) are a “New Kind of Family”.

Make up your mind, NewSea!

Today, NewSea made a free hair, but then changed it to a subscriber hair, and now it’s a free hair again?

The hair’s called Rainy Season (which is appropriate because it’s been raining here for the past two days), and it looks slightly familiar to a previous NewSea hair:

And also:

I think the one on the left is a girl, and the one on the right is a boy? (Thanks to ArmenianTwin95 for pointing it out!) But still… they look pretty neutral.

What Happened to their eyes?

Yup, Peggy made it onto this blog. But for their models. Seriously, those eyes look weird. And the hair looks somewhat like the…

 

So the moral for today? Peggy likes Friends, and Newsea doesn’t!

Custom Content Cleaning

 

After being on The Mare’s Nest for having lots of Custom Content, I decided to go through my custom content, and I removed some.

And apparently my laptop has recommendations for each game, and for my laptop, The Sims 3 is a 3.5, and currently my laptop’s state is 3.3. I remember it being a 3.6-ish when my brother and I first got the laptop. So um yeah.

And are The Sims 3 Executives seriously giving away a chair? I’d much rather have the bugs in my game fixed then have a comfy chair with a plumbob on it.

They Understand me!

Story of my Simming “Career”. Now, I save every 10 minutes, anytime a Sim ages up, dies, etc, or a promotion happens.

Hmm, a cooking timer. That sounds like a good idea.

My game used to crash (With my laptop) a lot before, mainly because of overheating. I got a laptop cooler now and it’s better, and it’s crashing less. To all you laptop users, if you’re playing on batteries, be ready to charge it once it the battery’s less than 10 percent. I’ve learned the hard way that laptops usually crash at 12-ish percent.

And in unrelated news, my game loaded in 35 minutes today.

Um, yay?

Today, when I began to play The Sims 3, it only took 38 minutes to load. Ever since I got Ambitions, it was taking at least 48 minutes (And sometimes up to an hour and 15 minutes!) to load the game, so this was a new record. Then again, nothing to be proud of, seeing as others have their game load in like 10 minutes.

Good thing I multitask.

A Little Magic would help!

For some reason, ABC Family is deciding to try another original sitcom.

What I want to know is, why?

To those of you unfamiliar with the channel, it’s a channel aimed at teens, mostly girls, which seems to produce tons of drama, and very little comedies.

Let me rephrase that: The channel produces tons of successful drama, and very little successful comedies.

The comedies are usually cancelled before their time(Ruby & the Rockits was cancelled after two months, Roommates got cancelled after a little over a month) or never even given a chance. So why is ABC Family trying to make another comedy? 

The plot is basically Melissa Joan Hart (As in, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch), is an aunt taking care of her nephew and niece, and she hires a male nanny, played by Joey Lawrence. It’s been compared to Who’s the Boss? and The Nanny. There’s a good chance Melissa and Joey are going to have relationship issues, and ABC Family’s not going to be too nice to it.

I’m hoping the show could get a second season. Melissa Joan Hart’s a mom, and she hasn’t really done anything famous since her Sabrina days, and maybe this could be her comeback.

And on a side note, yesterday was the anniversary of this blog, seeing as the first post was August 14, 2009.

Spares in the City

Burning Question for all you legacy players: What do you do with your spares?

For those who don’t know, a spare is any child from a generation who doesn’t become the heir(ess). For example, if Mary Sue and Marty have three kids, Elizabeth, Benjamin, and Victoria, and if Victoria is chosen to be heiress, Elizabeth and Benjamin are spares.

I’m one of those people who either spoils Sims, giving them all the good traits and and boy/girlfriends, or I neglect Sims. Their childhoods are spent reading “The Adventures of Raymundo,” and I give them part-time jobs*, and by young adulthood, they only have a few skill points and they stay single.

But what happens to those Sims who look pretty good, but are kinda boring? Or to those who are more than average in the looks department, but their siblings have better looking spouses? What should be done with them?

I usually take the easy way out by just doing double heirs/heiresses, but then the house becomes too crowded, and then I face the same problem with their kids.

I try to be nice to Sims I sorta like, but not enough to make them heir(ess). I try to give them a romantic interest, and if there’s enough room in the house, I move the romantic interest in and have them married, then I give them a kid and move them out. Other times, I try to skill them up so they’ll be ready in the workforce and bring in more money (Hey, they used to live in a house filled with luxuries! It’s wouldn’t be fair to leave them dirt poor), which sometimes works.

But almost always, the inevitable story progression butchers their lives. For example, if a spare has a career related LTW, and I want them to achieve it, I usually send them out of the house while they’re like at level 3, and I hope they continue to get promotions. But thanks to the wonderful story progression, they change jobs! Sometimes, they pick the wrong branch (As in, the music career and law enforcement career), and sometimes, they go unemployed for a while, and then they get a part-time job!

So, what do you do in this situation? I generally do what I mentioned above, but I save a copy of the Sim, so I could get them in another game.

* I despise giving my teen Sims part-time jobs because they’re so limited in choice (“The umpteenth girl, could work in the spa! The nerd could work in the bookstore! Ooh, that’s so genius!"), and they take away LOTS of time for my teens. Seriously, they barely do their homework, and I’d rather have my Sims be able to paint portraits then work in a grocery store. Yeah sure, if the family is near broke, the teen could bring in some extra cash, but then again, playing for tips or sculpting is lucrative, too. Besides, part-time job + homework + fulfilling needs + curfew= no time for spouse hunting. And I’d rather have my teens in self-employed skill careers then boring part-time jobs.

What Other Way to Celebrate?

Last week, The Nanny made it on to TV Land. This month also marks Fran’s last month on nick@nite (Thanks, My Wife and Kids!). What better way to celebrate for the former than with…

…another Fran-eque hairstyle? 

Big in the back, red and white clothes, black hair, pale skin… is NewSea a fan of Fran?

Yeah, sure, it’s still not exactly the same, but still it has a creepy resemblance.

I kinda like it, but then again, I’m a fan of The Nanny, so yeah.

You Can’t Spell Medieval without CAS

Last Week, The Sims: Medieval was announced. Instead of being an expansion pack or a stuff pack, it’s going to be a standalone game. Medieval enthusiasts should’ve been excited, there were rumors going on for a while. But some people weren’t so happy:

darkraven has a point. A Sims Medieval game should just be set in a different time period. After all, The Sims isn’t an RPG. (The Sims games set in other periods should just be like the Flintstones and Jetsons if anything!).

Personally, I like The Sims for its customization. Clothes, furniture, building, and personality. Without that, it’s not The Sims. So what’s EA thinking?

Yet I think GoatStabber put it best:

Yeah, I really don’t see it being much of a success either.

If there are better RPGs and “Lifestyle” games, then what will The Sims Medieval offer?

And congrats to The Sims 3 for winning Choice Video Game at the Teen Choice Awards.

And yes, I know the title is wrong, you could spell Medieval without CAS, but yeah, I hope you get the point.