Around the Tubes vol. LXVI

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 True Blood, The 19th Wife, Caprica, Mel B: It's a Scary World, and the NFL.

- The season of True Blood is coming to an end this Sunday at 9:00 on HBO and below is a sneak peak. Then after the finale, head over to bloodcopy.com to chat with Kristin
Bauer van Straten following the east coast viewing, and Joe Manganiello will be chatting after the west coast viewing.



- Lifetime’s latest made for television movie premieres Monday September 13. The 19th Wife stars Chyler Leigh (Grey’s Anatomy), Matt Czuchry (Gilmore Girls) and Patricia Wettig (Brothers & Sisters) and is based on the New York Times bestseller of the same name. Here is a promo:

The 19th Wife HD Promo


- Mark your calendars Caprica fans, the show returns Tuesday October 5 at 10:00. The show will follow new episodes of Stargate: Universe. In other Syfy news, Sanctuary will return Friday October 15 at 10:00 following Friday Night Smackdown.

- If I were to give a reality show to a Spice Girl, it would have been Baby Spice. But alas, nobody has let me run their network, including the Style Network who instead went with Scary Spice for Mel B: It’s a Scary World. Here is a preview of Sunday’s new episode:

Mel B: Date Night Fiasco


- NFL starts off this week, which means it is week one of fantasy football. Run out of orginal smack to talk to members of the league? Then heaqd over to Cameo Stars to have the likes of Drew Brees and Tony Romo insult your rival’s team on their Facebook page. Check out some outtakes below.

- And what better way to watch football than in HD, this will be my first season with it. For those that do not, Aaron’s has an 82 inch (that is almost seven feet) 3D ready Mitsubishi DLP that you can rent for $199 a month.

- In other NFL news, if you cannot enough of football and have a gambling problems to the point where you feel the urge to bet on which teams that will face a black out this season, head over Bookmaker.com to place your bet. Currently Kansas City and Cincinnati are you best bet at +500.

I’m Going Down, Follow if You Wanna

There was not a more subversive love song in recent memory then the one Sara Bareilles titled it. It screamed to be sung along to when coming on in your car. But behind the bouncy piano bop was a snarky response to her record company who wanted, well, you know. One assumes that same executive is who we have to thank for King of Anything (though I would like to think she wrote it Kanye West) which bounces around, this time with a brass band, and even snarkier lyrics perfectly visualized in the video when she holds out her hand, with a crown ring, to be kissed during the line, “Let me hold your crown babe.” This guy may be a tool, but thanks to him we have gotten some pure pop perfection from it.

King of Anything is just a sign of what is to come for her sophomore album Kaleidoscope Heart which brings a broader sound that her first outing. Hold My Heart is an anthemic balled heavy on the bass and drums. Gonna Get Over You is reminiscent of the days of girl groups complete with a nonsensical sing-along chorus.

Basket Case (not a Green Day cover) may be Sara’s most vulnerable song to date where she takes on the attributes of the title “whenever you’re gone” and trades in her piano for an acoustic guitar for much effect. She plugs in for the next song Let the Rain which starts as a ballad before exploding into a hand clapping groove. Where Love Song and King of Anything hide their vemon behind bouncy tracks, there is no hiding the distain on Machine Gun where Bareilles lets loose on the chorus “Maybe no body loved you when you were young.” You know this is the type of song you just have to hear live.

Song to Download – Machine Gun

Kaleidoscope Heart gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Previewing Terriers

Remember back in the early nineties when MTV was such a cultural phenomenon even their commercials could launch a career (of course now they cannot even launch a musical act). Now all those commercial stars are convening on FX with their own television shows, Denis Leary is in his last season on Rescue Me. Tonight Donal Logue, also known as Jimmy the Cab Driver, gets his own show Terriers.

The show follows Logue as he travels between two worlds, his old life and his new one. In his old life, he was a cop with a by the book partner in Rockmond Dunbar (who conspicuously looks like a thinner Rockefeller Butts complete with an oral fixation) while in his new life he can barely get by as a private investigator with a former petty thief for a partner as played by Michael-Raymond James (who conspicuously looks like a younger Eddie Finnerty). In his former life, he was married to Kimberly Quinn (Two and a Half Men) but now he is resigned to buying the house they lived, and got divorced in despite the lack of a steady cash flow.

Things seem start to pick up for the PI duo while looking for a friend’s daughter who just so happens to works for a developer who gives the guys a retainer to get back “sensitive material” that she took. And yes, the sensitive material is what you think, but much more. Despite a conclusion at the end of the episode, I do not expect this storyline to go away even though the next couple episodes deal exclusively with case of the week plots with an occasional mention of what happens in the first episode. And the third episode features maybe the most bizarre cliffhanger ever (be sure to pay attention to the upper right part of the screen).

Though the best new show of the fall, be warned Terriers is not as funny as the promos would have you to believe and is more of the tone FX’s other freshman series, Justified. But Raylan Gibbons these guys aren’t. Logue’s jokes are more of a rundown bitter man who quips bitterly when asked questions he does not want to answer than his usual punch line fare of his sitcom work. And despite the title, the dog of choice is for some reason is a bulldog. It is still unknown to me why the show is called Terriers. But the show gets bonus points for the cheeky seventyish title sequence.

Terriers airs Wednesdays at 10:00 on FX. There is a Terriers page on Hulu so presumably episodes will show up there eventually.

Previewing Sons of Anarchy 3.x

On most network shows, I usually have trouble remembering what happened three months previous, but cable show are either worse. Thankfully Sons of Anarchy returns tonight with a lengthy two minute “previously On” segment. I remembered Jax had his son stolen from him, but I forgot pretty much everything else. But that wasn’t the only cliffhanger were for left with last season. Gemma had to go on the lamb when agent Stahl framed her for the murder of Cameron Hayes’ son which set the Abel kidnapping that also left the prospect lying in the pool of his own blood trying to protect Abel.

At the start of season three, SAMCRO is in full find Abel mood with all available members trying hunt him or Hayes’ whereabouts with the lone exception of Tig (and a couple of red shirts) who is on Gemma duty. And with the strong headed Gemma, things do not go as planned for Tig with keeping her on the down low including a trip to her father in the form of Hal Habrook (Into the Wild) which is an odd place because wouldn’t immediate family be a place the FBI would look for a fugitive? But anyway.

Halbrook isn’t the only notable guest star as Deadwood’s Paula Malcomson doesn’t have to hide her Irish accent as cousin to Cameron with ties to Sons of Anarchy: Belfast and the real Irish Republican Army. Kenny Johnson (Saving Grace) will also be back this season as SOA Tacoma member who has bad blood with Tig (which I cannot remember what). And Ethan Zobelle may go unmentioned in the first couple episodes, but Alan Arkin interesting enough is listed as director of Episode 11 and I would be surprised if we do not see him in front of the camera sometime this season because the death of his daughter by the hand of Gemma cannot be sitting well with Ethan.

The show is back with a vengeance tonight with the boys on the warpath to find Abel, but the other factions around Charming won’t be sitting still waiting for SAMCRO’s personal drama to settle down. The final scene of tonight’s premiere may include the most violent in the show’s history to date.

Sons of Anarchy airs Tuesdays at 10:00 on FX. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Previewing 9/11 Specials

We are inching up to the ninth anniversary of 9/11 and the National Geographic Channel has a pair of shows to commemorate the day, both airing tomorrow. First up at 9:00, they look back on the event through the eyes of then mayor of New York City with Giuliani’s 9/11. The special features interviews about where he sought strength, motivation and perspective with the backdrop of amateur and news footage from the day. Check out a preview below.



Following that at 10:00 is Witness: DC which takes a view from two hundred miles to the south and. If you saw last month’s Witness: Katrina, it follows in real time the nation’s capital’s reaction to the plane the hit the Pentagon entirely through the lens of home video; fire, rescue and police footage; and news coverage including Footage from the Pentagon crash site taken shortly after impact captures a raw view of the devastating aftermath. Below is a preview:



For those who cannot sit through 9/11 retrospectives because the wounds as still to raw and need some light fare, try out the new series Lion Ranger: Trouble in the Pride on Nat Geo Wild premiering tomorrow at 9:00. Check out a preview below: