Best of the Week vol. XXXIX

Quote of the Week: Pancakes is not just breakfast, it’s an edible way for saying thank you so much for last night. (Det. Esposito, Castle)

Song of the Week: All Night Long (All Night) - Lionel Richie (as sung by Michael Wilbon, Pardon the Interuption)

Big News of the Week: Don’t Marry Dudes Who Would Leave Their Pornstar Wife to Marry You: Just one of my rules for life.

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Free Download of the Week: Walk A Mile In My Shoes – Elvis Pressley (Amazon MP3): It may not be one of his thirty number one hits, but it is live Elvis and free, so that works for. For those out there with kids, you may want to head over to iTunes where they have a pre-air free download of Disney Channel newest show Good Luck Charlie (which is too close to the name of an unwatchable Dane Cook movie). There is also all ten episode of 10 Things I Hate About You from ABC Channel that are available for the low, low price of free.

Deal of the Week: DVD's as Low as $5.99 (Atonement, American Pie 2, Mystery Man)

Video of the Week: Of course a “Weird Al” Yankovic biopic would itself being a parody. Although as good as some of the casting is (Olivia Wilde as Madonna, Patton Oswald as Dr. Demento, Gary Cole as papa Yankovic, Al as a shady record exec) they could have done better than Aaron Paul as Al. Off the top of my head Jim Parsons or Jay Baruchel would have been better.

"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story"

Next Week Pick of the Week: Saving Grace, Monday at 10:00 on TNT: Check out my preview of The Final Season here.

Around the Tubes vol. XLIV

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 Showtime free weekend, Nat Geo Wild, The Pacific, Doctor Who, Caprica, Stargate Universe, Merlin, and A Very Funny Festival.

- This weekend (starting yesterday) is a free Showtime weekend which includes Showtime HD and Showtime on Demand for most cable providers. I really didn’t see any movies on their schedules, but I will spend the weekend marathoning the most recent seasons of Weeds and Secret Diary of a Call Girl on Demand and in HD. Their buzzed about shows Nurse Jackie and The United States of Tara, which recently both got renewed for their third seasons are also available. And all three seasons of The Tudors are available On Demand in time for the fourth and final season premiering April 11 at 9:00.

- If you get tired with all the free movies this weekend on Showtime, remember the Nat Geo Wild channel premieres Monday. If you have The Fox Reality Channel, you will more than likely have Nat Geo Wild in that space starting next week. I may have a review of the first series, Rebel Monkeys sometime next week. If not, it premieres Wednesday at 8:00.

- For those keeping up with HBO’s The Pacific will want to head over to hbo.com to check out the online storyboard of John Basilone's famous heroics.

- Doctor Who will be returning to BBC America Saturday April 17 at 9:00. Here is an interview with actor Matt Smith (The Doctor) and lead writer/Executive Producer Steven Moffat explain the wonders of the TARDIS, the Doctor's time machine.



- Tonight is the mid-season finale of Caprica. Here is a preview:



- In other Syfy news, next Friday sees the return of both Stargate Universe and Merlin at 9:00 and 10:00 respectively. For those that missed the first season of Merlin on NBC last summer, Syfy is running a full marathon this Sunday starting at 10:00 AM.

- For those in the Chicago area, tickets go on sale March 29 at 10:00 for A Very Funny Festival which will feature Ellen DeGeneres, Cedric The Entertainer, Denis Leary, Russell Peters, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton, Aziz Ansari and Bob Odenkirk taking place June 15-19, 2010. More talent will be announced soon.

Previewing Saving Grace: The Final Season

Ending don’t get much more exciting than the title character falling off a building trying to stop an attempted suicide. That was just how Saving Grace ended just before we get visual evidence that Grace and Neely (who is also tied to Grace’s angel Earl) landed with barely a scratch. The new and last season of Saving Grace kicks off Monday at 10:00 with Grace and Neely being rushed to the hospital and the town all a flutter of the video which is getting played plenty of times on the local news.

Tonight also sees the introduction of Gordon McDonald who is also drawn to the city because of the fall that we do not get to know much about but it is clear he is not a writer like he claims to be but clearly will play a big part in the final season. Lucille Bluth also returns tonight as Grace’s mother and Ashley Williams is also back as Ham continues to date his dead brother’s wife which gets some jokes thrown his way because of it. As for a case of the week, the crew investigates a deadly mauling from a dog. Also expect a major life changing event from one of Grace’s co-workers. Check out a sneak peek below:

Previewing Breakout

One of the most engrossing television shows today is National Geographic’s Locked Up Abroad that takes harrowing first person accounts of people taken prisoners in foreign lands. Now the producers of the show has a new show for the channel, Breakout premiering this Sunday at 9:00 before moving to its regular night and time on Wednesdays at 10:00 starting March 31.

Breakout follows the formula of Locked Up Abroad in its first person testimonials of people that have broken out of prison on how they we able to do so. If there were a complaint of Locked Up Abroad (besides its overabundance of drug mule episodes) is that we never get to hear the other side of the story from the jailer or kidnapper. This is not the case with Breakout as not only do we get interviews from the prisoners, we also get to hear from the wardens of the prisons they broke out of and the people assigned to tracking them down.

Where Locked Up Abroad relied heavily on profiling drug mules, Breakout looks to have most of their stories originate in Texas where the first two episodes escapees originate from. On Sunday the episode catches up with The Texas Seven, a group of inmates that came up with an elaborate plan to escape the Connally Unit prison. Then a week from tonight, inmate Dennis Hope manages to evade the Darrington Unit officers by running out of the prison’s five mile search perimeter in under a half an hour. Check out a preview below:

It's Okay, We All Get the Slip Sometimes Everyday

Though decent enough, the union of actress Zooey Deshanel and indie hipster may have set a bad precedent. Not too long after they released joined together to form She and Him we were forced to witness the cringeworthy duo of Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn. What is next, Natalie Portman singing alongside Connor Oberst? Could this lead to a fractious Deshanel family reunion when her sister Emily of Bones fame decides she wants to start a band with Zooey’s husband, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie? The possibilities are more frightening than watching 2012. Let us not forget Mandy Moore is still married to Ryan Adams and could start recording together at any time.

And now She and Him are back for their second album and are just as creative in their branding calling the sophomore outing Volume Two (after their debut was the aptly entitled Volume One). Not much has changed in the two years since their last album. Zooey is still crooning over music that harkens back to middle of the twentieth century folk with new millennium sheen added by the inclusion of two covers from that era by NRBQ and Skeeter Davis.

Added to that, the album opener Thieves could well have been a cover of a long lost Roy Orbison song. But much like their first album, Volume Two is slogged by a lack of diversity. The only two stand out songs are the overly-perky first single In the Sun which is accompanied by an even peppier Bye Bye Birdie style music video. The other is the album closer If You Can’t Sleep which dumps the instruments and just has Zooey joined by a humming chorus.

Song to Download – In the Sun

Volume Two gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

My Tears Don't Show but oh Honey They Flow

Valentino – Diane Birch



This is one of those videos you have to watch again and again trying to figure just how they managed it. Thankfully Diane Birch included a making the video accompaniment to show you how it happen behind the screen. Most surprising: there actually was no screen.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXXII

Tool Academy: Two episodes for the price of one. Though I do not understand why they didn’t air one during the Oscars. I cannot imagine there are many people who watch Tool Academy every week that have seen The Hurt Locker. And I bet more people catch the repeat airing of the show than watch the premiere (I know that is how I catch it). Then for the second time this season, we actually get a break up before elimination. Do these people forget that there is a sizable cash prize at the end of the show? It would probably take most of these people close to a decade to make $100,000. You can stream recent episodes over at vh1.com. You can also download Tool Academy on iTunes.

Chuck: Of course everyone is leaving Chuck but Morgan. Hurph. Ellie and Awesome are joining Doctors without Borders, Sarah is moving to Washington and Casey is resigned to a civilian life (though still working at the Buy More presumable). Here’s hoping it is all a red herring and that Morgan ends up being the one that leaves because if when Casey is reinstated, hopefully he isn’t happy that Morgan was the one that blew his cover. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Greek: Of course Lea Thompson shows up during an eighties themed episode. Thankfully there wasn’t a storyline of her most memorable from the decade where she tried seducing her son. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Lost: Why exactly did Smokie send Sawyer over to the Hydra when he could have just went all Smokie and killed everyone? Is he not allowed to kill Whitmore like it was eluded that Ben was not allowed to a couple seasons ago? And if Whitmore and his goons didn’t kill the Ajira leftovers (I will take him at his word that he didn’t), who did? Does Sawyer no longer knock up Matt Saresen’s mom in the flashsideways? Speaking of the flashsideways, why is Miles wasting his time in Vice, wouldn’t he be better served in Homicide or can he no longer talk to dead people? But of course, the time for questions is over! You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Mercy: What, they couldn’t get Snookie or The Situation to star in this episode because it was pretty obvious who the Guidos were portraying. I feel dirty for thinking all of this. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Mercy on iTunes.

Community: Holy Buster Bluth sighting! But just how many classes do these students take? It seems like they are in more than most community colleges offer. And what college requires an art credit let along two Spanish classes? You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Community on iTunes.

Also check out my First Impressions of Justified.