Blog Posts by Rachel Stein

After seeing the pilot episode of NBC's "Fashion Star," we cannot remember what expectations we had of it, other than we thought it sounded vaguely like a "Project Runway" rip-off. Don't get us wrong -- it kind of is one, but we think it missed the mark so badly that we've gone beyond the wannabe zone and straight into the disaster phase. Here's why it can't possibly stack up to the O.G. of fashion shows:

Concept
On 'Project Runway': 15 or so contestants compete with one another to design, execute, and style the best clothes under various restrictions in time, materials, and theme. Their designs are judged by a panel of experts, and one or more designers are eliminated each week.
On 'Fashion Star': Instead of a contest to make the "best" garments, the challenge is to make an arbitrarily decided three-piece collection that retail buyers from Macy's, H&M, and Saks Fifth Avenue think will sell the most to a mass market. There's also a slew of celebrity mentor/judges such as Jessica

It was initially disappointing to find out that "Teen Mom 2" would take away precious screen time from our beloved "Teen Mom," but as it turns out, after two solid seasons, the second installment of "Look How Depressing the Lives of the '16 and Pregnant' Girls Are Now" gives "Teen Mom" a run for its money in several ways. If, however, you have room for only one teen baby mama drama in your life, here's how the two stack up:

The One Who Is Constantly in Jail
First and foremost, it's no laughing matter that "Teen Mom" star Amber Portwood attempted suicide. In general, it's not fun to see her or "TM 2" star Jenelle Evans constantly ruin everything in their lives and end up in jail (or "jell," as they pronounce it). But while Jenelle mostly just loves smoking weed, Amber is a physically abusive partner to the man-child that is Gary -- though, if you look at their respective rap sheets, each dabbles in the other's trademarked behavior.
Winner: Strictly in terms of the televised

This week, the absolute worst people on reality television were the ones with the least self-awareness. It's one thing to take your show seriously, but quite another to play the victim when it's obviously just for the cameras. You know the following reality stars are bad when they all beat out Dr. Drew and the ladies of the "Teen Mom 2" reunion -- though something tells us that lovely bunch will make this list next week. We also considered including Bethenny Frankel for constantly complaining about how poor she used to be, only to reveal that back in those days she was renting a $2,600-per-month apartment, but we're still trying to process that one.

Gayle ("Jerseylicious")
Her showdown with Cathy Giove at the latter's party was absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary -- it almost reached "Real Housewives of New Jersey"-level trashy to start a big fight in the middle of a celebratory shindig while at the same trying to poach her enemies' potential stylists. Cathy was crazy and

Like everyone else, we're counting the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the big-screen version of "The Hunger Games" finally arrives in theaters. To keep our minds off the excruciating wait (and because there's only so much fanfic we can read), we've imagined what the Games would be like if the male and female teen tributes came from today's TV shows instead of a future dystopia's districts. Which character would survive? Here's who we'd like to see in the arena and how we think they'd do. May the odds be ever in their favor.

District "Parenthood"

Tributes: Drew Holt, Haddie Braverman

Special Skills: Drew is capable of powering through any visual monstrosity, thanks to that one time he had to see his mom in bed with her boyfriend. Haddie's got Ivy League brains to boot.

Sponsor Gifts: Amber could get her new boy toy to pull a few political strings for her brother and cousin. Sadly, Haddie's involvement doesn't actually help the team out in terms of gifts, due to her

Abby Lee's reign of terror continues on Season 2 of 'Dance Moms' (Scott Gries/Lifetime)We were a bit worried that "Dance Moms" would lose its sparkle after the masterpiece that was Season 1. But within the first minute of last night's premiere, we knew we had nothing to worry about: Abby Lee Miller is back, and as twisted as ever. The plotline about casting a new girl was completely over-the-top and cruel, and if we took a shot every time Abby told a child or mother that "Everyone's replaceable," we'd be a goner. Moving forward, the jury's still out on whether Jill and Kendall will be a satisfying addition to the group, but until then, let's all laugh at the most ridiculous -- and, not-so-coincidentally, heinous -- lines of the evening. Shockingly, none came from Cathy, but we've got all season for those.

Season 4 of "Breaking Bad" has blown us away (Gregory Peters/AMC)

At the risk of stating the obvious: "Breaking Bad" is incredible, and when we talk about the golden age of television, we're talking about this show. While it can be on-the-nose and unbearably nerve-racking at times, it's been underwatched for four fantastic years, as far as the ratings are concerned. In honor of one of its best seasons yet, we'd like to award crystal-blue buckets of Los Pollos Hermanos chicken to the following in gratitude.

Best Cover
Gotta hand it to Skyler on this one: Walt's gambling addiction has come in handy time and time again. It can't be easy to see your son unfairly hate you so intensely, either.

Grossest Nonfatal Injury
Either that piece of Mike's ear getting blown off after the cartel tried to jack his stash, or Walt's head wound sticking to the sheets the night after his brawl with Jesse.

Are pageant moms or dance moms more awful? (Hillary Kurtz/TLC, Scott Gries/Lifetime Television)Say what you will about the parents who parade their children around in intense competitions that may or may not be age-appropriate, but in terms of entertainment, it's hard to argue that the TV shows about them aren't at least a little intriguing, if not shamefully enjoyable. TLC's "Toddlers & Tiaras" has had a chokehold on this market since early 2009, but after a strong premiere season of Lifetime's "Dance Moms," we think it's necessary to pit these two shows against each other. Just know that when we say "winner," we mean which show we would rather watch, given the battle.

You win a "Glee" role... and you win a "Glee" role! (Matt Sersion/Oxygen)Well, that was a bummer. It's one thing to celebrate truly talented finalists and not eliminate anyone for, say, a week ("Top Chef All-Stars" did it effectively), but to have two winners and two half-winners is just... I don't know, un-American. Un-entertaining. Un-freaking-fair for Hannah. And since it looks like there's probably going to be another season of "The Glee Project," we're devoting the last of our energy for this show on coming up with ways to make it better the next time around.

1. Get Better Judges
On both the talent and celebrity sides, the judges on this show were seriously lacking. How was vocal coach Nikki Anders not heavily involved in the judging process? She was obviously a thoughtful and perceptive person who spent a huge amount of time with each contestant, and singing is arguably the largest part of "Glee." And we'd love to see a bigger role from each guest mentor, be it actual judging in last-chance recitals, more screen time in their one-on-one sessions, or