The Maxim Top 10 of the Hot 100 list

Another year has passed, the stock market just closed and many are looking for a ray of sunshine. Well perchance this will brighten your day. The latest Maxim Hot 100 list has just been released.

Right up there with the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, this list is well anticipated. But being the critical being I am, I pondered the top 10. Are they really worthy of being on the list? Should they really be ranked so high?

For those that heard the First Lady was on the list, yes it is true. No, she is not in the top 10. Nor should she be. She may be one of the best looking First Lady’s, definitely in my lifetime, but being on the list is about as good as she deserves (at number 93). Besides, were she not married to President Obama [the Great] she would never have made the list.

• Olivia Wilde – at least it’s not one of the Jessica’s (Beil, Alba, Simpson). Still the best thing that can be said is that being on a hit television show, really helps push you up front. Not a #1 in my book.
  
• Megan Fox – Those hamburgers she had to eat for Transformers 2 really paid off. Still being the old guy I am, I like women that are more real than stick figures. She doesn’t match up to Beyonce (#52), Fergie (#45), or Marisa Tomei (#97).
  
• Bar Refaeli – You may not know the name, but by know you know the figure. I can see her as a top 10 choice. Too much media for her not to be.
  
• Malin Akerman – Who is this? If you say that, then you missed Watchmen and seriously missed her. She deserves to be a top 5 to me.
  
• Mila Kunis – Jackie from That 70’s Show. She’s over 21 and fits in the top 10.
  
• Eliza Dushku – she doesn’t Bring It On for me. At best she’s in the top 50.
  
• Adriana Lima – Hello. Does she make the top 10 for me? Yep. Though she is a bit skinny, it’s that foreign quality that gets her on the top.
  
• Rihanna – Like the saying goes,

  “There is no bad news in entertainment and politics.”

  I feel for what she has been through, but not enough to put her in the top 10.
  
• Jordana Brewster – Seriously? Ok she did SI, and she was in Fast & Furious (first and latest). But the top 10? No, I don’t think so.
  
• Jennifer Love Hewitt – What is it with the people that pick these lists? She is eternally on the top of these lists, and I still cannot see it. Too skinny, too ugly. Better now than earlier in her career (plastic surgery?) but still nowhere near the top considering who is on this list.
  

So in my list I need to replace 6 women on this Maxim Hot 100 top 10 list. Who would I have picked?

Charlize Theron (#38) – She has a grace, a body, and a mind. She has talent too. How do you not pick this woman?

Gabrielle Union (#71) – She can match up to any of the other women on this list any day. J-Lo wishes she had that ass. Which is more curves than basically everyone on the top 10 of Maxim. Plus she looks better and is older too.

Tricia Helfer (#75) – How did they miss her from the top list? Does Hewitt really compare? They even ranked her at #75 if you can believe it.

Hayden Panettiere (#36) – On the thin side as well. But I’m working with the Maxim list here. There aren’t many women who know what a cheeseburger is. Or even a salad in some cases.

Zoe Saldana (#29) – I said before that being in a popular item helps push yopu to the top, but obviously Maxim did not push her far enough up the list. If you didn’t think Nichelle Nichols was sexy on TV, this movie Uhura has to do it.

And for my final choice, I pick someone not on the list of Maxim. Mind you this woman is sexy, and attractive as any woman on the list (in my opinion far more than most). You might have seen her in A Good Day To Be Black & Sexy – and if you did you didn’t forgert her. Nana Hill. (and I believe she was in the Star Trek movie too)

Burn Notice starts new season after a bang

The new season of Burn Notice on USA Network has started. Not with a bang, but the aftermath of one.



In last seasons cliffhanger we saw our favorite ex-spy virtually blown up, which can never be good for the spirit nor the body. And it wasn’t as we quickly see.

Michael () is in very bad shape. Injured he barely has enough time to assess his near death before he is under chase again. And he is not happy about it.

Now let me take a step back for a moment. I did not start out as a fan of this program. In fact, I rarely bothered to watch the initial episodes. But as this new season approached I had the chance to see several episodes back to back. Add to that the occasional episode I saw during the first run. Combined this has caught my interest.

One of the biggest factors for my interest is Bruce Campbell (Sam Axe on the show). I am a fan of his characters and find his presence on the small and large screen to be fun and comforting. He adds a bit of whimsy to his characters and any situation he is in. And for this show his character takes away from the drama and constant action without distraction. Without his character you would be left with a very bad version of James Bond in Miami.

One of the worst things about the show is Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar). Often called Fi, she is the other side of Bruce Campbell’s Sam. She is violent, short-tempered, and near anorexic. She is supposed to be an expert fighter and the ex-girlfriend of our star Michael. I can understand why she is an ex. With due respect she needs to eat a cheeseburger, or 20.

There is a difference of being skinny and looking anorexic to me. As she looks like slightly more than bones I am always amazed when she is in any physical confrontation, like when the wind is blowing. Let alone anytime she gets into an actual fight. Perhaps that is why her character is successful, no one would ever expect her to survive hitting anyone, let alone getting hit.

And of course I should mention Jeffrey Donovan playing Michael, our ex-operative seeking vengeance. He is played well as the balance between the 2 extremes of his cohorts. He is intelligent without feeling like the omniscient Bond. He practices often giving credibility to what he can do. The narratives that occur on the show (voiced by his character), explaining critical decisions or responses, make perfect sense and fill in otherwise obvious plot holes.

Another thing I like about the entire show is that everyone can be hurt. Being caught in an explosion leaves bruises, being punched can make you bleed. Nothing is worse than watching a character being beat down by 3 guys and standing up without a scratch, or being caught in an explosion and 5 minutes later running around as if they just got out of the gym with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Back to the new season. It follows the usual theme of someone needing Michael’s help while he is sporadically interrupted by Carla. Though now Carla (Tricia Helfer – the 2 best thing about Battlestar Galactica) and Michael are seemingly aligned in learning who tried to kill him - thus hinder Carla’s interests. Carla, and perhaps a well-funded organization behind her, are responsible for Michael having lost his profession. Michael despises this group, and Carla, who enforce his subservience via threats on his family.

And as the show is progressing family is a bigger and bigger theme in our ex-spy’s life. In several episodes he has gone against his training and better judgment to come to the aid of children, and families, in need. This is his fatal flaw I believe. And I expect will be used against him at some point.

The season opening show was good. I won’t go further into details of the episode beyond the fact that it is again the needs of a child that motivates him. And that the mysterious Carla and her organization may not be as large or well-funded as we may have first thought.

The reason I am interested in this program is that it is intelligent. Yes there are explosions every episode, and yes most of the shots miss everything as if it were an episode of the A-Team. But Michael and the team think through their missions. It’s more akin to the original Mission Impossible than the average television fare.

Is the show absolutely compelling? No. But if you spend the time to catch up with the histories of the characters, you will find yourself interested in the on-going story arcs and subtlies of the program.

Burn Notice is not the best program on televison right now, nor the most watched (the 2 are not often related) but it is a worthwhile departure from the norm. It’s a program that you can watch and remember what you have seen afterward, which these days is hard to find.