57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXXXVII

Quote of the Week: No I didn’t hit him. Did you just forget because you’ve kissed so many people at school? Do you realize by proxy I’ve now kissed Glenn? (Coach Taylor – Friday Night Lights)

Song of the Week: Crime Wave – 50 Cent (Friday Night Lights)

Big News of the Week: Still Finding it Hard to Back Up World Cup Officiating: Yeah, another week of bad calls at the World Cup, most notably the England goal that was not. But instead of instant replay, which I am vehemently opposed to, how about shelling out an extra hundred bucks a game and put an official on each goal line whose sole reason is to make sure the goal crosses the line. Soccer fields are so wide, it is hard for the referee or linesman to see the goal line clearly, so why not put someone behind the net that is only looking for that?

Leverage: So we finally get some real back-story about Parker this week by meeting her “father” who happened to also a have few run in with Nate. It may be getting to the time we get more flashbacks from these characters. I would like to see more of them back before they turned good. You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.

Persons Unknown: If I were a betting man, I would have put a large chunk of change for Joe being the mole (dude had no back-story), but I was hoping for Cameron Frye to turn out to be in on it. And did the token hot chick actually get release just for apologizing to her father? Could it really be that simple? You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Persons Unknown on iTunes.

Memphis Beat: Just how many plot twist can one case have? I got tired of them all after about the second. You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Memphis Beat on iTunes.

Friday Night Lights: Oh you silly little promo monkeys trying to make me think that Riggins knocked up Becky. Of course I wouldn’t have had to spend the last week thinking that if someone would have keyed me into the knowledge that “going to the car wash” was a Texan euphemism for having sex. But the out of the blueness of Becky’s pregnancy doesn’t even make the top of the list of the most absurb moment of the week which goes to Julies, “let’s just skip the whole dinner thing and go straight to the making out part.” If only girls would actually use this approach, us dudes would be a lot richer. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Free Download of the Week: Pilot - Friday Night Lights, Season 1 (iTunes): Ever wonder why I go on and on about this show, check out the first episode ever for free on iTunes (keep in mind I really didn’t become obsessed until around the forth or fifth episode).

Deal of the Week: Save up to 54% on Television Shows (Freaks and Geeks, Party Down, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Video of the Week: It seems like once a month a Congressman does or says something so stupid I think who are the morons that elected this fool? The latest to embarrass the nation comes courtesy of Minnesota (the land of Jesse Ventura and Al Franklin) whose Senator that wasn’t a writer for Saturday Night Live took precious time out of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee, a life time position of which there are only nine of, to ask Elena Kagen a question about the movie Twilight. It is times like these where I believe that states have the right to veto the baboons that other states elect to federal office. That would go a long way to solve the current political logjam at the capital (that and open primaries, can we make open primaries a national law please). So Minnesota please do the right thing and get Amy Klobunchar out of office.



Next Week Pick of the Week: It is America’s birthday tomorrow, go outside and enjoy some hamburgers and fireworks and be glad that Amy Klobunchar doesn’t represent your state (unless of course you live in Minnesota, then you should feel really ashamed).

Around the Tubes vol. LVI

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 Maroon 5, The Choir, Warehouse 13, Eureka, Haven, Leverage, Shifty and the Big Shots, and The Biggest Loser.

- It is real easy to attack MTV for not showing videos anymore, but when you can find them online whenever you want, why sit and hope for a good one to come up on television? And MTV.com is where you can find the latest Maroon 5 video for the first single off Hands All Over due out in September. Like every other Maroon 5 video, Misery features lead singer Adam Levine, who says about the video, “It was great to be back on set with the guys again. Everyone in the band really dug the concept and it was fun working with director Joseph Kahn. I am looking forward to our fans getting to check it out!” making out with a token hot chick, not that there is anything wrong with that. Check Misery out below:

Misery – Maroon 5
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- New show alert: The Choir premiere July 7 at 10:00 on BBC America. Here is a sneak peak:



- In returning show news, both Warehouse 13 (7/6 at 9:00) and Eureka (7/9 at 9) return next week. New show Haven will premiere following Eureka at 10:00 the same night, here is a preview:



- No new Leverage this Sunday due to the country’s birthday, but there will be a four hour mini-marathon starting at 9:00 of the four episodes that have aired this season.

- You may know Seth “Shifty” Binzer as that dude from Crazy Town (or his stints on Celebrity Rehab) and now he wants some help choosing the art for his new single, Save Me. Head over to shiftyandthebigshots.com to pick by July 10 and below is a video of Shifty asking you to do just that:



- Fans of The Biggest Loser should expect to see a lot of Cybex equipment in the next couple seasons as their new Fitness Equipment Partner.

Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

In his lifetime, Jimi Hendrix released only three studio albums before his overdose death a month short of his twenty-eighth birthday. Sure we all have The Ultimate Experience in our CD collection, and a greatest hits compilation is usually good enough for a career that short, but all three releases from The Jimi Hendrix Experience are worth getting individually, and you might as well start at the beginning with Are You Experienced? this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.

Yes The Ultimate Experience has the stand out tracks like Purple Haze (one of the great track 1’s of all time), Manic Depression (with frantic drumming from Mitch Mitchell), Hey Joe (one of the great break up songs ever), The Wind Cries Mary (maybe the best song Hendrix ever wrote), Fire (a great jukebox anthem), the bluesy Red House, and of course, Garth Alger’s favorite song, Foxey Lady.

But The Ultimate Experience was so loaded that even the title track from Are You Experience? didn’t even make the cut. The song was Hendrix at his psychedelic best and his experience doesn’t necessarily involve being stone which he suggests in the song. The even trippier, somewhat instrumental Third Stone from the Stone also gets left off most compilations. And May This Be Love is like a more melodic Wind Cries Mary.

Forty years after his death, some of Jimi Hendrix’s unreleased works are officially seeing the light of the day with the recent release of Valley of Neptune with many more to come over the next couple years. I am a little hesitant when it comes to posthumous releases of unfinished work, but at least we have three albums full of songs the way we know Hendrix intended them to be.

Previewing Locked Up Abroad 4.x

In its run, the fourth season premiere of Locked Up Abroad has by far its biggest get so far. Sure if you are my age or younger, you probably have never heard the name Billy Hayes, but he wrote a book about his escape from a Turkish prison, Midnight Express that was later turned into a movie that won Oliver Stone an Oscar in 1978 for Best Adapted Screenplay and landed William Hurt a nomination for a Supporting Actor.

Much like every “Based on a True Story” movie that Hollywood makes, Midnight Express had plenty of inaccuracies where they do not let facts get in the way of a good story. Now Hayes sets the record straight and tells the whole story, something he was not legally able to do when writing the book version. For those unaware of his story, Hayes was your normal sixties hippie who would smuggling hashish out of Turkey and was sentenced to four years in prison which the courts changed to life in prison just months before he was set to be freed. Hayes then makes up his mind that he was going to escape the prison or die trying.

Being an actual storyteller, Hayes’ narration is much more fluid than others that have appeared on the show and paints a vivid picture of his harrowing efforts o becoming a free man again. There is such a wealth of information delivered with such emotion, afterward you may wish that they did a special two hour edition of the episode because you know had to happen behind those Turkish walls or more story with how Hayes assimilated back into American lifestyle. I guess you will have to check out the book for that.

Locked Up Abroad airs Wednesdays at 10:00 on the National Geographic Channel. You can also watch select episodes on Hulu. Other stories you can expect this season include contractors trapped in Iraq, backpackers kidnapped in Panama, and drug smugglers caught in Tokyo, Bangkok, and Spain. If you cannot get enough of the drug stories, National Geographic Channel is having a four episode special called Drug Inc. on Sunday July 11 and Monday July 12 each dealing with a different drug, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana. Back to Locked Up Abroad, check out a preview of the premiere below:

Locked Up Abroad: The Real Midnight Express

Previewing Rescue Me 6.x

Last we saw Tommy Gavin, he was sitting in the pool of his own blood after his uncle shot him because Teddy blamed Teddy for his wife dying in a drunk driving accident. That is really all that came to the top of my head of what happened last season on Rescue Me after a ten month absence. Sure I vaguely remember Maura Tierney and Shawn singing, but even a lengthy “previously on” isn’t much help after a layoff like that, though I shouldn’t complain too much because of the even lengthier break it had the previous season.

In what may be the least surprising cliffhanger resolve (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Tommy lived through the gunshot and as much as he does not admit it, he has come out a changed man thanks to what he saw on the other side (hint: it is not as musical as Shawn’s near death experience). The show returns with Tommy in the ambulance (don’t worry, we do hear how we get there after Teddy was adamant that Tommy die a slow death) which triggers another one of his lucid dreams, but the question is, was it a dream or him about to pass over?

The near death experience of Tommy also have some of the boys thinking too and thinking about making some changes themselves, most hilariously of course being that of Shawn’s plan to get into heaven. And the House has other problems as the economy has hit home and word is New York City plans on shutting down one or two and the recent shooting of one of their own with many of them in attendance doesn’t help their case very much. Unfortunately for Tommy, his experience had an adverse effect on Colleen, who just so happened to turn twenty-one during his stay in the hospital, and has been taking advantage of what you can legally do at that age.

Rescue Me is down to it final nineteen episodes starting tonight, with ten episode airing the next couple weeks and the final nine airing next year just in time for the tenth anniversary of 9/11. And from the first couple episodes of season six, Rescue Me looks to go out the way it came in, with a mix humor, tortured guilt of those that survived 9/11, and breathtaking rescue scenes. Let’s hope the final season or two doesn’t turn out to be purgatory.

Rescue Me airs Tuesdays at 10:00 on FX. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Rescue Me on iTunes.

Previewing Louie

It is easy to compare Louie to Seinfeld because they both start with comedy bits, but what they do after that where the shows diverge into something completely different. Jerry’s bit would then lead into a traditional sitcom of four friends who migrate between his apartment and the dinner the most patron and very few places else. Louie is anything but tradition. His standup is the catalyst for the scripted bits, most of which would not fly on Must See TV.

Louie C.K. is a standup’s standup, he has written for Letterman, Conan, and Chris Rock chat fests, but always seems to miss his big break. He wrote and directed the criminally under watched Pootie Tang, he got his own HBO show that only got one season, and he co-starred along Ricky Gervais in The Invention of Lying that no one seemed to like. Now he has gotten another chance for television stardom, this time on basic cable.

Louie played a slight version of himself and the only permanent actor on the show; both are recently divorced and have two young girls. His stand up routine at the beginning of each segment (there are two separate ones each episode) set up the following storylines that deal with his divorce, dating and volunteering at his kids’ school.

When Louie is funny, it is have to rewind because I was laughing too much funny, mostly during his stand up segments and one or two bits during the scripted part, but the show can also be painfully uncomfortable at points even fans of The Office’s awkwardness will cringe at some bits. While Louie may not be appointment television (even airing after one such show in Rescue Me), but it is worth catch every once and a while if the show ends up on Hulu (which I am assuming it is because there is already a Louie page on Hulu) it would be a great ten minute diversion if you need a short break at your commercial and take in a segment.

Louie airs Tuesdays at 11:00 on FX.

57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. CXXXVI

Quote of the Week: Yes, I’m a lurker. That’s my thing. (Elliot, Leverage)

Song of the Week: Trashcan – Delta Spirit (Friday Night Lights)

Big News of the Week: USA Wins Late; Loses Even Later: After scoring a goal in stoppage time in group play that boosted them from elimination to first place and an easy bracket. It looked like America was a team of destiny. But once again, the team gave up an early, poorly defended, goal. The cardiac kids came back once again, but gave up yet another early, poorly defended goal, in extra time and were too tired to get another late equalizer. On the bright side I do not know any Ghanaians so I don’t have to hear them rub it in like the Canadians after the Olympics.


Persons Unknown: One thing I would have never considered if stuck in an abandoned ghost town would be dig under the city. Maybe it’s my fear of the tunnel collapsing. Granted it took them too long to figure out maybe they should try to build a signal fire. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Persons Unknown on iTunes.

Friday Night Lights: The whole campus visit felt a little eh, and I am not too thrilled with the chop shop plot line. Still a solid episode, I love Buddy Garrity becoming the color commentary on a Spanish language station. But hopefully the previews are just a red herring and what is suggested doesn’t actually happen. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Free Download of the Week: Levi’s Pioneer Session: The jeans company has a cool series of downloads with artists from today covering songs that inspired their sound including Nas doing Slick Rick, The Shins taking on Squeeze, Raphael Saadiq doing his best Spinners impression and many more. Note you have to submit your e-mail to download the songs which will put you on the Levi’s mailing list, but you can always opt out later.

Video of the Week: Two of the funniest movies of last decade are currently on Hulu, Pootie Tang (which expires at the end of this month) and High Fidelity which is embedded below. If you need a good laugh, give them a look.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Rescue Me, Tuesday at 10 on FX: It has almost been ten months since Tommy was shot and left to die a slow death by the hands of his uncle. With nineteen episodes left, spread over two seasons, I am going to go out on a limb and says he survives somehow (hopefully the series finale isn’t one of those, he actually died then, and the last two season was all flashsideways dream type of thing). Check back later this week for more on the season premiere.