Poldark begins, A Deadly Adoption amuses and Food Network Star tries to get trendy

The summer TV season started off well as the new edition of Poldark aired the first of it's seven part series on PBS. Our leading man Ross(played by Aidan Turner, who I fondly remember as the vampire from BBC's Being Human) has a lot on his plate as he arrives home in Cornwell after his soldiering duties are done.

Not only is his father dead, the estate is in huge debt and the land gone to rack and ruin. To top off that sundae of suffering, the woman he loves is set to marry his cousin Francis-yep, plenty to sing the blues about for our man Poldark!

However, he does some allies such as the former tenants of his father who are happy to lend a helping hand(or fist) as well as his cousin Verity(who I think has a little crush on him). Unlike his uncle, who would be happy to send Poldark to London or anywhere else and is a little too willing to pay for that privilege.

Despite his many good reasons to leave, he decides to stay with one of those motivating factors being Demelza, a young woman seeking a better life away from her abusive family, who he hires on as a kitchen maid. The set up is very promising and the visuals alone are enticing enough to tune in for yet it's the story that will keep us all coming back for more:

The big viewing party this past weekend was held in dubious honor of the Lifetime movie A Deadly Adoption starring Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig and yes, the two well known comedians played it straight for the most part.

It was the typical over the top "based on a true story" flick that this channel excels at, with a few extra special touches such as a financial advice author holding book signings in a bar surrounded by groupies,  a seemingly sweet schemer turning into an evil Hot Topic clad psycho in a blink of an eye and a grumpy boyfriend who takes the Willy Wonka approach to dealing with a diabetic hostage.

Yep, it was totally cray but a whole lot of melodramatic fun(too many commercials dragged out the running time there,Lifetime-what was up with that?) for all involved. You have to give credit to both Ferrell and Wiig there for daring to make their low budget/bad acting fantasy come true in such an entertaining way:

On Food Network Star this week, the theme was all about current food trends that involve intense flavor. The culinary contenders were split into two groups(guys vs. gals) to create a five course meal that showcased such tastes as slimy, stinky, fiery, burnt and raw.

While neither team was a clear winner, one person was definitely chosen to go home and that was Sita. She's a real sweetheart but her dish didn't have enough of the stank required for the challenge. Sita was sent to go last time but fortunately Matthew's smirk saved the day for her. Alas, not this time!:

RANDOM NOTES:

CUTTHROAT KITCHEN: A new season is going strong and just when you think they can't do anything more crazy, Alton whips out something even more fiendish than before. This last episode, one chef had to make waffle batter in a saxophone while another had to cook over a kid's model of a volcano! What will they think of next, seriously?: