Best of the Week vol. XXXIII

Quote of the Week: Given that Saint Valentine was a 3rd century Roman priest who was stoned and beheaded, wouldn't a more appropriate celebration of the evening be taking one's steady gal to witness a brutal murder? (Sheldon – The Big Bang Theory)

Song of the Week: Morning Mood (from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, op. 46) – Edvard Grieg (as performed by Sheldon on recorder, The Big Bang Theory)

Big News of the Week: The Start of the Winter Olympics: And it didn’t really start a high note with the death of a Georgian luger and it didn’t help that NBC showed the video multiple time. You just have to wonder why they have metal beams that close to the track and if so, why no padding on them

The Opening Ceremonies also saw the premiere of We Are the World 25 which I thought was an idiot proof, but they somehow were able to ruin it. You know it is not a good sign when they start it off with some twelve year old no name followed by a Pussycat Doll. And Lil’ Wayne singing? Seriously? It also didn’t help that the chorus sounded off key. It may have just been better if they just re-released the original.

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: The High Road – Broken Bells (iTunes): I mentioned the video earlier this week and now you can download the early frontrunner of Best Song of 2010. But if you also want to get in the mood for Valentine’s Day tomorrow, I suggest Cupid by Boyz II Men over at Wallmart.com and 40 Dogs (Like Romeo and Juliet) by Bob Schneider over at Amazon MP3.

Deal of the Week: Mega Savings on Mega Hits (The A-Team, Inglourious Bastards, Back to the Future)

Video of the Week: Parenthood premieres Tuesday after the Olympics and may have the most likeable cast on television (hopefully the writing lives up to the acting). One of them is Monica Potter who describes her character below.

Inside Christina


Next Week Pick of the Week: Tool Academy, Sunday at 9:00 on VH1: Very few thing can draw me away from Olympic competition(although Curling doesn’t start up until Tuesday) and the new season of Tool Academy. Of course the show made news in-between seasons when a former contestant was one of the cast of Ben Hur to turn out to have slept with Tiger Wood. The new season boasts the first two female Tools and a same sex couple. Though looking over the cast pictures, it is not clear who that is considering metrosexuals are a Tool Academy staple.

First Impressions: Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains

Being an anniversary season, Survivor’s twentieth, it is time to bring back some familiar faces even if Survivor All-Stars goes down as the worst season ever (well, either that or Thailand) and Fans vs. Favorites isn’t that far behind. Yet when Heroes vs. Villains was announced I was cautiously optimistic. The four tribe approach of All-Stars hurt strategic play and strong alliance building as everyone just voted out the winners first. And the season had more quitters that the previous seasons combined.

Looking over the rosters of the new seasons, it looks to be filled with contestants that would have to be voted off or dragged off by the medical team to get them off the island as shown by the first challenge with doctors being called in twice to set the shoulder of Stephenie LaGrossa and splint the toe of Rupert Boneham which was broke in multiple places. Those Villains sure lived up to their name. Although you have to wonder about how Jessica “Sugar” Kiper made it onto the Heroes after giving a topless two finger salute to the other team after winning her round.

What makes Heroes vs. Villains on paper better than the first All-Star season is the splitting tribes into two specific groups with all the schemers and backstabbers who would do anything to win on one side. On the other, you have the contestants that mostly got asked back by hard work and perseverance and not stepping on people’s backs to get them there. So on the Heroes side, who will be the first to make that first strategic move that will blindside a tribe mate (as no one was last night because for all the talk from Tom Westman and Cirie Fields of making that move at the first tribal council, the tribe still went with the easy choice of Sugar).

Then on the Villains side, who can adapt because everyone else has seen them before and know their trick. Although, did Samoa not air before Heroes vs. Villains because Russell pulled the same align with ever girl he did on his season, except this season looks to be trading brunettes for blondes this time around. Another problem with the Villains, whereas every guy on the Heroes wants to be the Alpha Male, it looks like no one wants to step up and assume that leadership role on the Villains, with “Boston” Rob Mariano only stepping up to make fire, but from the promo, it doesn’t look like he may stay on the island very long.

With all that said, it is extremely hard to give anyone the edge to win it all which should make for an interesting season so I will stick with my preseason pick of Stephenie LaGrossa. But I will be rooting for the Heroes all the way as well as Danielle DiLorenzo, who topped my list of The Hottest Token Hot Chicks of Survivor Ever, individually. And while talking about list, also check out The 25 Greatest Survivor Contestants Ever.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains airs Thursdays at 8:00 on CBS. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download Survivor on iTunes.

The Greatest Survivor Contestants Ever

Tonight sees the premiere of the second full All-Star season of Survivor where they are splitting the best into Heroes vs. Villains. Over the twenty seasons of Survivor, there have been 303 different contestants that have tried to Outwit, Outplay, and Outlast each other. So in honor of the anniversary I rounded up a few of my buddies, Dan from TiFaux, Kim from TV Screener, Vance from Tapeworthy, and my resident Survivor fanatic Doug to figure out who is the Greatest Survivor Contestant of All Time. Well, at least who fills the slots two to twenty-five because of course it was the original winner Richard Hatch who was the unanimous number one. So here are the other twenty-four we came up with (note: the “w” denotes the winner that season):

1. Richard Hatch – Borneo (w) / All-Stars

2. Russell Hantz – Samoa / Heroes vs. Villains

3. Rob Mariano - Marquesas / All-Stars / Heroes vs. Villains

4. Rob Cesterniro - The Amazon / All-Stars

5. Tom Westman – Palau (w) / Heroes vs. Villains

6. Todd Herzog – China (w)

7. Yau-Man Chan - Fiji / Micronesia

8. Amanda Kimmel - China / Micronesia / Heroes vs. Villains

9. Yul Kwon - Cook Islands (w)

10. Stephen Fishbach - Tocantins

11. Rudy Boesch - Borneo / All-Stars

12. Jenna Morasca - The Amazon (w) / All-Stars

13. Sandra Diaz-Twine - Pearl Islands (w) / Heroes vs. Villains

14. Stephanie LaGrossa - Palau / Guatemala / Heroes vs. Villains

15. Chris Daugherty – Vanuatu (w)

16. Tom Buchanan - Africa / All-Stars

17. Lex van de Berghe - Africa / All-Stars

18. Rupert Boneham - Pearl Islands / All-Stars / Heroes vs. Villains

19. Colby Donaldson - Australian Outback / All-Stars / Heroes vs. Villains

20. Parvati Shallow - Cook Islands / Micronesia (w) / Heroes vs. Villains

21. Cirie Fields - Exile Island / Heroes vs. Villains

22. Kathy Vavrick-O'Brian - Marquesas / All-Stars

23. Ethan Zohn – Africa (w) / All-Stars

24. Bob Crowley – Gabon (w)

25. Ken Huang - Gabon


And for those wondering who are my favorite Survivors of all time, here is my list which I took a mix of the greatest strategists and the most entertaining throughout the last decade:

1. Richard Hatch – Borneo (w) / All-Stars

2. Rudy Boesch - Borneo / All-Stars

3. Jenna Morasca - The Amazon (w) / All-Stars

4. Russell Hantz – Samoa / Heroes vs. Villains

5. Tom Buchanan - Africa / All-Stars

6. Parvati Shallow - Cook Islands / Micronesia (w) / Heroes vs. Villains

7. Stephen Fishbach - Tocantins

8. Bob Crowley – Gabon (w)

9. Rob Cesterniro - The Amazon / All-Stars

10. Amanda Kimmel - China / Micronesia / Heroes vs. Villains

11. J.T. Thomas Jr. – Tocantins (w) / Heroes vs. Villains

12. Colby Donaldson - Australian Outback / All-Stars / Heroes vs. Villains

13. James Clement - China / Micronesia / Heroes vs. Villains

14. Ethan Zohn - Africa (w) / All-Stars

15. Rupert Boneham - Pearl Islands / All-Stars / Heroes vs. Villains

16. Yau-Man Chan - Fiji / Micronesia

17. Brandon Quinton - Africa

18. Earl Cole – Fiji (w)

19. Danielle DiLorenzo - Exile Island / Heroes vs. Villains

20. Cirie Fields - Exile Island / Heroes vs. Villains

21. Natalie White - Samoa

22. Todd Herzog – China (w)

23. Stephanie LaGrossa - Palau / Guatemala / Heroes vs. Villains

24. Yul Kwon – Cook Island (w)

25. Ken Huang – Gabon


Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains airs Thursdays at 8:00 on CBS. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download Survivor on iTunes.

Around the Tubes vol. XXXVIII

I have gotten a plethora of cool press releases have been flooding my inbox recently that you may find interesting. This post will include blurbs on Bill Maher… But I’m Not Wrong, The Ricky Gervais Show, The Lifeand Times of Tim, Funny or Die Presents, Parenthood, Weeds, Traveler’s Guide to the Planets, Stealth Fighter, Tyrannosaurus Sex, and Jay Leno.

- Those with HBO and in need of a laugh will want to tune into the channel this Saturday when it will air Bill Maher… But I’m Not Wrong live at 10:00 with topics ranging from Michael Jackson and of course politics just six days before Real Time returns for a new season. Want even more funny on the channel? Tune in February 19 as The Ricky Gervais Show, an animated version of his podcast, premieres at 9:00 followed by The Life and Times of Tim at 9:30. Then at midnight there will be Funny or Die Presents featuring the best of the internet site.

- In other HBO news, March 14 sees the premiere of The Pacific from Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Gary Goetzman i.e. the guys behind the great Band of Brothers miniseries. The promo below is listed as Super Bowl Trailer, but I do not remember seeing it. If you didn’t either, here it is now.

Super Bowl Spot

- If you have watched NBC recently, you have seen the Parenthood Is campaign promoting the new show. Now you get into the action for a good cause for defining Parenthood yourself. If you do, NBC will donate $20 to The Boys and Girls Club of America. There are two ways to do so, by Twitter; all fans have to do to submit is to use the hashtag #parenthoodis, followed by their personal definition or explanation. Or you can upload a 20 second video to theparenthoodproject.com with your definition. While at the website, you can see videos from Joel McHale, Amy Poehler and Lauren Graham as they define Parenthood.

- The University of Andy (as in Botwin of Weeds) is reopening just in time for valentine’s Day so for those that had resigned to spending the day alone watching the season premiere of Tool Academy will want to head over to universityofandy.com to enroll in his Valentine’s Day course to help you find someone to watch Tool Academy with.

- For those who do not want to watch the previously mentioned Tool Academy, The National Geographic Channel is doing a little counter programming with a Traveler’s Guide to the Planets this Sunday with Saturn at 9:00 followed by Jupiter at 10:00. Then Monday sees Mars at 9:00 and Venus and Mercury get combined at 10:00. Tuesday brings Neptune and Uranus at 9:00 and even though it was recently demoted, Pluto (and Beyond) gets its own episode at 10:00. To get ready for the three day event, head over to NationalGeographic.com for an interactive tour of the solar system.

- On the National Geographic Channel tonight is the latest episode of Stealth Fighter. Here is a preview:

Super Human Ninja Girl


- Need more Valentine’s Day options on television? How about Tyrannosaurus Sex (no seriously, that is the title) at 10:00 on Discovery. Just as the title may suggested, the special uses CGI to just how the dinosaurs may have wooed each other. Naturally, it is intended for mature audiences only.

- Were you scratching your head like me at Jay Leno showing up to David Letterman’s worst Super Bowl party ever on how it happened. Here is Jay explaining how it came about below. Also, anyone interested in attending Jay’s return to The Tonight Show should head over to his Facebook page.

Jay’s Super Bowl Ad

I Want My Music Television vol. LXXIII

There have been a couple of videos that have caught my eye lately so I thought I’d give them some love since the death of Musical Television left a void for a forum on the art form. If you are interested in buying the video through iTunes, click the title link (where available). If you are interested in buying the song, look for a link in the analysis.


Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby) - Jedward & Vanilla Ice



So let me get this straight: Justin Timberlake grows the Buster Poindexter poof, clones himself, and then somehow convinces Vanilla Ice to perform a song he hates that is mashed up with a song he got sued for stealing. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 10’s and something called Jedward.


The High Road - Broken Bells



I remember when I heard Danger Mouse was hooking up with the dude from The Shins and I thought to myself, “Um, can he just do another Gnarls Barkley album instead.” After perfecting the mash up (The Grey Album) and the pop song (Crazy), I thought his streak would end with teaming up with an indie rocker. If their first single is any indication, I was completely wrong and personally cannot wait to hear more. And where Gnarls Barkley was deceptively dark, there is not hiding it with Broken Bells down to the David Lynchian video.


Temporary Home - Carrie Underwood



Maybe not very coincidental that Carrie underwood breaks out her acting chops in a video just before she land actual acting job like in an upcoming episode of How I Met Your Mother. Well, at least judging from this video she is at the very least a better actress than Megan Fox.


Written in Reverse - Spoon

Nothing that special about the new Written In Reverse - Transference video, I am just digging the song right now.

Super Bowl Shuffle 2010

Remember back when people would watch the Super Bowl for the commercials because the game itself was usually over by halftime? Luckily as the ads took a creative dip in recent years, the game has been thrilling thanks to David Tyree’s helmet, Pittsburg / Arizona’s dueling fourth quarter comebacks, and this year’s Peyton Manning’s interception.

Even though MVP’s always go to players, this year should have went to Sean Payton. The on-side kick out of half time is the gustiest play ever in the history of the Super Bowl. (Keep in mind had they missed it and they lost, added to the not making a fourth a goal play, he would have been killed by the talking heads today worse than they did Bill Belichicken when he went for it on fourth down against the Colts earlier this season.) But I almost feel bad for the Colts fan because just as they talk themselves back on the bandwagon after their team quit on a perfect season, they end up losing. And I could tell they were going to lose when they trotted out Matt Stover, the guy is so old he is an ex-Brown. And by ex-Brown, he was on the team when they were unceremoniously stolen from Cleveland.

As for this year’s commercials: eh. The NFL needs to put a stop to GoDaddy’s “Too Hot for TV” ads. Someone at Doritos’s needs to be fired along with whoever thought spending two million taxpayer dollars on a census ad featuring Ed Begley Jr. And it isn’t a good sign for movies this year when the best trailer was for a video game (Dante’s Inferno). But there were some interesting one, here is my top 10:

1. House of Cans (Bud Light)
2. You Play Like Betty White (Snickers)
3. Worst Super Bowl Party Ever (Late Show with David Letterman)
4. Stevie Wonder Punch (Volkswagen)
5. Timothy Richmond (Cars.com)
6. Punxsutawney Palamalu (NFL Full Contact [note: this is only because I can mock Steelers fan because of it])
7. Green Police (Audi)
8. Vacation (Homeandaway.com)
9. Robot (Intel)
10. Free Grand Slam (Denny’s)

And since there was an overabundance of clunkers, here were the biggest waste of two million dollars:

1. Funeral (Doritos)
2. Megan Fox (Motarola)
3. Auto-Tune (Bud Light)
4. Gym Stealing (Doritos)
5. Casual Friday (CareerBulider.com)
6. Census
7. Sumo (KGB [seriously who names a product KGB?])
8. Anti-Bark (Doritos)
9. Too Hot (GoDaddy)
10. Tim Tebow (Focusonthefamily.com)

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXVI

Chuck: If Morgan defiles Lana Lang I will have to boycott Chuck forever. Hopefully her letting it slip that Chuck went to Paris will have him distracted for awhile. Speaking of which I would worry about the Buy Morons from figuring out his secret but with Ellie helping out and Captain Awesome as the weak link, Ellie might get it out of him. Hopefully Chuck can do something to throw them off his trail because I do not like the idea of everyone finding out his secret. Well, I wouldn’t mind Morgan figuring it out so the CIA ships him off to Hawaii with Harry Tang never to be seen again. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

How I Met Your Mother: I really do not like it when the show goes to flashbacks inside of flashbacks inside of flashbacks, but this episodes may be the best of the season so far with Barney going on the search of the Perfect Week. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: As good as the episode was, how could the writers not have realized how great it would have been had Sheldon had been working with Penny for most of the episode? You can download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Greek: So Casey confesses to burning down a house and nothing is going to happen to her because the house she burnt down housed someone who sold sex to win a singing competition. Alrighty. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Mercy: How does one play basketball in weather where you can see your breath? Shouldn’t the air inside expand in the cold causing weird bumps on the surface of the ball. Maybe this is a case for Mythbusters. And can they go ahead and bump James Van der Beek off the show sooner than later. Dude got painfully annoying quick. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Mercy on iTunes.

Modern Family: I would like to state for the record that I was a racquetball champion back in college. But luckily no moon landings or splash downs in the locker room. And though I can barely tolerate Phil, his bit with Dylan playing In the Moonlight (Do Me) at the end was pretty funny. Can we please add Dylan to the cast? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains: I wish they would have included more people commenting on the series. Like how can you talk about Michael falling into the fire without getting the firsthand account from Michael himself? But it was nice to see the battle of the egos between Russell and Richard. Too bad Richard was too much of a villain off the show that kept him from competing against Russell. You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com.



Community: The best part of the episode is that Senior Chang has nothing better to do that hang out in a bean bag in a dorm room of a student watching crappy movies. Although I was disappointed we didn’t get to find out what Jeff told Troy about Annie that got him to come on to her. Maybe he told him to Google the pictures from her Complex photo shoot. You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

You can also check out my First Impressions of Lost the Final Season.