57 Channels and Only This Is On: 6/8/13

Quote of the Week: Sometimes all we can do is watch. (Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, Hannibal)

Song of the Week: Harper Valley P.T.A. – Jeannie C. Riley (Mad Men)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: I Watched the CMT Awards Again This Year: Kristen Bell has gotten me to watch some horrible crap like Heroes, Pulse, Burlesque, but the worse of them all was the Country Music Television Awards last year. I audibly groaned when it was announced she would host again this year, but something surprising happened this year, it was actually enjoyable. For some reason Lenny Kravitz of all people kicked off the show, the opening skit was funny, some random country band did a solid version of The Chain originally by Fleetwood Mac (when a guitarist was raiding out of the floor, I thought, oh goodness, they really got Lindsey Buckingham to do the solo, unfortunately it turned ou just to be Keith Urban), Kristen sang Human league, the was the completely random presenting team of Ed Sheeran and Lisa Marie Pressley, the dude from Nashville got to present with a chick in a see-thru dress (and humorously tried not to get caught on camera peaking at her), and the performances were by artists I actually like: Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, the dude from Hootie & The Blowfish, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. There was even a couple good unintentional funny segments with Cassadee Pope (she sings two country songs on The Voice and apparently she is country now) and her hyping Twitter. Is 100,000 tweets over the course of a three hour telecast really that impressive? But this year's CMT Awards was better than any Video Music Awards show from the past decade. Which I guess really does not say much.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Mother and Child Divided, Switched at Birth Monday at 8:00 on ABC Family

Mad Men: After about four episodes, we finally get a name: Sterling Cooper and Partners. And who would have guessed that Pete would be the only one to sniff out the “and Partners” alternative motives. I thought when Pete went to creative after the meeting he was going to try and steal Ginsberg and start his own agency. But I wonder if we are in for a repeat of season three where Sterling Cooper Draper and Pryce move in the middle of the night and start a new agency after a hostile takeover from the British with the dude from Veronica Mars taking over for the dude from The Nanny. And I am a bit disappointed that Jane’s cousin was the token person from the agency’s past that was at the Hollywood party and not the new Star Trek writer Paul Kinsey.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

The Voice: Ever since Caroline Glaser was speciously voted off, I swore off this season, but every Monday I still log onto iTunes to see what the contestants were singing to see if I should have a change of heart, but never do. This Monday was actually worse, not only is two-thirds of the singers left bland country artists, but the two non-country artists performed songs by country artists. And then I saw Amber Carrington would be singing I Remember You. Wait, what? The Skid Row song? That was not enough to get me to turn in but I definitely checked out the video the next day her country-fied version of the classic power ballad (which was number 80 on my list of The Greatest Power Ballads of All Time) was as awesomely bad as I expected.


You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.

Hannibal: The puzzle of the first season is coming along nicely. There was a great dichotomy of Dr. Chilton being accused of planting the idea of Dr. Gideon being the Ripper in his patient’s mind when Dr. Lecter has been pulling Will’s strings this season. Will and to an extent Dr. Gideon thought that the Ripper would kill Gideon, but Gideon is beneath Hannibal, he just had Will do it for him. Brilliant. I assume that within the final two episodes, Will will start realizing what Hannibal is doing.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Hannibal on iTunes.


Free Download of the Week: Family Reunion – Wu-Tang Clan (Band Camp): The Wu is back to make you go boom boom like you’re Super Cat. The new song features verses from Masta Killer, Method Man, and Ghostface Killah and samples The O’Jay’s song of the same name. You can get the song for free, it is a name your own price so you can pay for it if you like. But if you know you are going to buy the album when it comes out, you can get the song now for free and not get charged later when you grab the full album later this summer.

Deal of the Week: Albums as Low as $2.99: Get deeply discounted album from Fleetwood Mac, Jessie Ware, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Very Best of Prince.


New Album Release of the Week: Damage - Jimmy Eat World

New DVD Release of the Week: The Newsroom: The Complete First Season

Video of the Week: While watching the trailer for Getaway, you can almost hear the pitch meeting:

Executive 1: We need to find a way to capitalize on the success of the Taken franchise.
Executive 2: How about we combine it with Fast & Furious and make the lead a race car driver.
Executive 1: Great, except all we can get for the Liam Neeson role is Ethan Hawke, he will need someone to help bring people to the theater, preferably the younger demographic.
Executive 2: How about one of the Disney girls who are trying to shed their goodie-goodie image and make her a carjacker who, for some silly reason, has to stay in the car.
Executive 1: Great, let’s get a screenwriter on this.

And of course the twist at the end will be Selena Gomez was working for the disembodied voice the whole time and right after she gets paid and walks away leaving Hawke to fend for himself, has a change of conscious and comes back to save Hawke and his wife and promptly gets adopted by them in the epilogue.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Pretty Little Liars, Tuesday at 8:00 on ABC Family: Pretty Little Liars fluctuates every ten episodes or so from guilty pleasure to just plain guilt watching. It seems like we are heading into a period of the former after the season finale where we learned that Alison was Red Coat (sort of, it could have been all a dream). And what is in Waldon’s trunk? I am guessing that since the Liars are all decked out in black in the promos there is probably a body in there but whose? Waldon? Cece? Could it be Melissa?