Best of the Week: 10/12/13

Quote of the Week: Normally we have naked cootchies lined up on the sink… but its slow. (Betty DiMello, Masters of Sex)

Song of the Week: Hey Man, Nice Shot – Filter (The Blacklist)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: A New Low: During the Republican primaries, as the candidates tried to out-crazy each other (I’ll see your Herbert Cain and raise you a Michelle Bachman) I floated a conspiracy theory that some of them were actually Manchurian Candidates placed by the Democrats to make the Republicans look unelectable except to the crazies in the south. And it worked, even though Barck Obama did a poor job in his first term, a poor Obama seemed more palatable than the crazy courting Mitt Romney.

You would think after the loss, the Republicans would disown the crazy wing of the party, but nope, they doubled down as if they want another four to eight years of President Clinton. They spent years of complaining that Obamacare would destroy the economy, and instead trying to fix it, waited their time trying to defund it over seventy times (you know, because fifty just is not enough) and even shut down the government which actually is hurting the economy months before Obamacare even goes into effect. So Obamacare did ruin the economy, but instead of being Obama’s fault, it lies at the feet of the Republicans. And now the Republican party has the lowest approval rating (28%) ever reported by Gallop since they started asking the question back in 1992. They also have a record high disapproval rating at 60%. For comparison the Democrats are at 43% approval and 49% disapproval. (All ratings have a margin of error of +/-4). So Republicans, stop being idiots, it is getting you nowhere. You have two years to shape up so we do not get stuck with a President Clinton because as we saw with President Bush’s, the sequel is significantly worse than the original.

Preview Picture of the Week:

“Salvage” Sons of Anarchy, Tuesday at 10:00 on FX

Free Download of the Week: Broken Over You – Vertical Horizon (NoiseTrade)

Deal of the Week: The Zombie Sale: Up to 51% Off: Zombieland, multiple Resident Evil movies, Zombie Strippers

New Album Release of the Week: Magpie And The Dandelion - The Avett Brothers

New DVD Release of the Week: Pacific Rim

Video of the Week: You will have to wait about another nine months until the season four premiere of Falling Skies, but you can check out the first look now which features even more bad apocalypse hair, a creepy military school, a new creepy hot blonde now that Karen is presumably dead, and what sound like a new enemy for the humans to fight (which may have something to do with the new creepy hot blonde) . The only thing missing is the creepy baby turned creepy grade schooler. Granted by the time the season starts, she may be a creepy teenager.



Next Week Pick of the Week: The Walking Dead, Sunday at 9:00 on AMC: During the boring farm season, everyone who read the graphic novel kept saying, wait until they get to the prison and meet the Governor. We got a glimpse of the prison at the end of season two and meet the governor shortly into the third season. And it really was not worth the wait. But as long as there are some gruesome zombie deaths, it is hard to get too disappointed with The Walking Dead.

Around the Tubes: 10/11/13

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 Austin City Limits, Gold Fever, HBO documentaries, American Blackout, Held Hostage, Homeward Bound, casting news, Cold Justice, Hillary Barleaux, and King of the Nerds.


- French band Phoenix make their Austin City Limits (ACL) debut in an epic, career-spanning full-hour episode that showcases their impeccably crafted rock. The brand new episode, part of ACL's just-launched Season 39, premieres October 12th. ACL airs weekly on PBS stations nationwide (check local listings for times) and full episodes are made available online at acltv.com immediately following the initial broadcast.

- The mini-series Gold Fever makes its television premiere on the Discovery Channel tonight at 9:00. The year is 1848: not long after the Revolutionary War. The country is still very young and dirt poor, a nation of farmers. And then, suddenly gold is discovered in California, and the new American dream is born. Over the course of a few years, Americans would discover the modern equivalent of $25 billion dollars — money that would give a jolt to the economy and make America the most powerful nation on Earth: the government could build an army and businesses had the capital they needed to create huge industrial empires unlike anything America (or the world) had ever seen.

- This Monday, HBO will be premiering a trio of new short documentaries. Directed by Oscar-winner Cynthia Wade, Mondays at Racine (9:00) tells the uplifting story of sisters Cynthia and Rachel who own a beauty salon in Long Island, New York, which they open free of charge to cancer patients once a month on Mondays. Redemption (9:40) follows a cast of characters from the five boroughs of NYC as they scrape together a living – five cents at a time. Emmy-winning filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill followed several men and women over the course of a year. Open Heart (10:20) is the story of eight Rwandan children who embark on a life-saving journey to receive open-heart surgery in Africa’s only free, state-of-the-art cardiac hospital, the Salam Center in Sudan.

- On Sunday, October 27, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, the lights will go out. American Blackout, National Geographic Channel’s two-hour, edge-of-your-seat movie event imagines the story of a national power failure in the United States caused by a cyberattack — told in real time, over 10 days, by those who kept filming on cameras and phones. You’ll learn what it means to be absolutely powerless. Check out the trailer here.

- Held Hostage, a new one-hour documentary special on PBS, details for the first time the real and full story behind the al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist attack in Algeria on the In Amenas gas facility, which was jointly operated by Algerian and European energy companies, including BP. The program, premiering Tuesday, October 22, 2013, at 9:00 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings), raises unanswered questions about the attack: How did a convoy of terrorists travel undetected hundreds of miles and gain control of one of Algeria’s most important and valuable gas facilities? Ultimately, who is responsible for the safety of the facility’s workers?

- On, Sunday, November 10th, 2013, Veterans Day weekend, Alan Alda and Joe Mantegna will host Homeward Bound, a live four-hour national telethon to support American veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Presented by Haven from the Storm and broadcast by the Military Channel (Discovery Communications) the telethon will be broadcast from the historic American Legion Hall #43 in Hollywood from 7:00-11:00 PM (ET), with phone banks manned by veterans, celebrities, and dignitaries. Multiple Emmy-winner Gary Smith is executive producer, Lee Miller is producer and Gail Purse is co-producer/talent executive.

- In casting news, AnnaLynne McCord (90210, Nip/Tuck) is set for a multiple-episode guest-starring role on TNT's hit series Dallas as Heather, a 20-something ranch hand with a troubled ex-husband and a 5-year-old son. RJ Mitte (Breaking Bad) will have a recurring role in the upcoming season of Switched at Birth as Campbell, a pre-med college student paralyzed by a snowboarding accident who works in the free clinic with Daphne. Jennie Garth will join her former co-star, Tori Spelling, in the ABC Family pilot Mystery Girls. And Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager, Body of Proof) is set to join Syfy’s newest original scripted series Helix for a multi-episode arc as the beautiful and charismatic Constance Sutton, the Chief Operating Officer of Ilaria Corporation, owner of Arctic Biosystems, the research facility where the series takes place.

- In renewal news, TNT has booked a second season of its gripping, real-life crime series Cold Justice. The network has ordered 10 new episodes of the powerful docu-drama which is planned for early 2014.

- Brooklyn based singer-songwriter Hillary Barleaux releases first single “Promise to Never” off her upcoming self-titled debut album. Take a listen below:



- King of the Nerds does not return until January, but TBS recently announce one contestant, and it is the one you voted as The People’s Nerd. Meet Josh Wittenkeller below:

Previewing Made in America

Festivals have been a big thing over in England for year, but for most of last decade there was really only Bonaroo and Coachella, and even those two for the most of their existence were thought as hippie festivals for jam bands. I am guessing the disaster that was Woodstock ’99 had something to do with it. But ever since Lollapalooza was re-imagined as a festival putting up roots in Chicago that there have been more and more of them popping up every year.

Just last year Philadelphia got its own festival Made in America founded by hip-hop impresario Jay-Z. Where other festivals are very rock heavy events and a token rapper or two, with Jay-Z creating the artist list, the festival ended up being the most diverse lineup ranging from rap to rock to RnB to EDM to blues. Jay-Z even managed to wrangle Ron Howard to direct a documentary for the inaugural Made in America festival which will debuts tomorrow on Showtime at 9:00.

Taking place in the middle of the city, Philadelphia is an important part of the film as we meet the worker at the festival from the stage crew to the food vendors (unfortunately for the documentary, the festival seemed to come off without a hitch as conflict is much more entertaining). Howard even interviews a neighbor to the festival who describes the “bang-bang music” coming in through the windows.

But the heart of the Made in America festival and documentary is the music where you will get a behind the scenes look at many of the artists who played last year. This includes the first performance together by the surviving members of Run-DMC in a decade. Ron Howard gets a DJ lesson from Skrillex who turns out to be much more interesting than his music. The best behind the scenes segment is Janelle Monáe who’s life story is the epitome of Made of America. You also will go behind the scenes with Pearl Jam, Odd Future, D'Angelo, The Hives, Santigold, and get snippets of sets by Gary Clark Jr., Dirty Projectors, Passion Pit, and Jill Scott. Unfortunately you will also have to sit through a lengthy segment featuring Rita Ora. Seriously Jay-Z, stop trying to make Rita Ora happen. You already gave us Rihanna, we do not need another one.

Of course the documentary ends like the festival does with the surprise appearance by Kanye West who joins Jay-Z for some Watch the Throne songs. Jay-Z- ego is on full display for most of the documentary, there is even a full segment on the Barclay’s Center even though Jay is no longer associated with the Nets anymore. And Jay shows up in the wings for most of the performances usually with Beyoncé by his side. That aside, Made in America is a great look at the festival for those who like me were resigned to watching on the live stream. Now you can watch it on your big screen with better speakers.

Made in America airs Friday at 9:00 on Showtime.

Feed Your iPod vol. LXXVII: Listen

Amos Lee put out an album yesterday Mountains of Sorrow, Rivers of Song and if I do not get around to reviewing it, let me quickly say it is another solid folk album from the singer-songwriter. Also Chill in the Air is probably my favorite song off the album. For those unaware of Amos Lee (his last album was number one on the Billboard charts), he came up during the same time as Ray LaMontagne and had the same laid back mountain man vibe, much more mellow than the current folk-rock boon. Though not a house hold name, he is one of those artists who gets his music placed in plenty of television shows and movies. My favorite Amos Lee song is Listen off his third album, Last Days at the Lodge which a bit darker and edgier than his previous work.

Listen – Amos Lee

Nothings Gonna Wake Me Now Cause Im a Slave to the Sound

Lorde was not the only highly buzzed about new artist to release an album last week (see my review: I'm Kind of Over Being Told to Throw My Hands in the Air). Much like Lorde, Haim built their buzz with critically adored EP and plenty of high profile endorsements (in the case of Haim wide ranging artists from Rihanna to Mumford & Sons have express support) but unlike Lorde the three sisters of Haim (and one unseen male drummer) have also build a reputation of a great live act playing basically every major festival over the past year.

Unlike Lorde whose debut album was made up almost entire of new songs, Haim does recycle half the songs on their full length first album Days Are Gone from their previous EP’s, whether this is a good thing or not depend on if you already bought the EP’s or not. Even as a listener it is a bit disappointing that much of the album is not new. But to steal the NBC’s slogan from decade, if you are just hearing of Haim for the first time, the songs are new to you.

If you are new to Haim, there is a reason why everyone from Rihanna to Mumford and Sons are championing the trio; they check almost every musical box you can think off. The first thing I heard was Falling (which is also the first track on the album) which harkens back to Southern California rock of the seventies like Fleetwood Mac, a comparison that deepens as each sister trade off lead vocals, but they also combine their voices that are reminiscent of nineties RnB. They go deep on RnB with songs like Go Deep with its penetrating bass worthy of any slow jam from two decades ago. There is also a pop sensibility of that other sibling band Hanson, but since all the members of Haim are legally able to buy beer, there is not an underlying cheesiness to them.

Haim’s influences sometime get too prevalent. Most notably on the first new single off the album The Wire which completely lifted another seventies So-Cal band The Eagles guitar riff from Heartache Tonight. And on Forever, it is hard not to hear the synthesizers from New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle. It is a fine line between homage and stealing and Haim toes the line a little too close a couple times on Days Are Gone.

For those familiar with Haim’s previous EP’s, the group gets weird and dark on some of the newer tracks on the album which makes it more diverse than the very homogeneous Pure Heroine that Lorde put out. My Song 5 sound more like something you would hear on a Dirty Projectors album than from the group that put out the Forever EP. While Let Me Go is a menacing track to that could have been a hit on alternative rock stations back in the nineties.

Last Tuesday was the deadline for the 2014 Grammy awards which is probably why Haim and Lorde (and a few other artists) dropped their album on Monday. Both are angling for a Best New Artists nomination, which should be a lock for both, along with Kacey Musgraves as well as maybe Capital Cities, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (assuming they are eligible, the rules for the category are fuzzy so not so new acts like Imagine Dragons and Kendrick Lamar may also be in the mix even though they do not seem very "new"). And the last two entrants may be the ones to beat next January, being fresh in a voters mind is usually a good thing. Lorde may have the inside track because of the smash Royals but Days Gone By is a much more fun album.

Song to Download – Falling

Days Are Gone gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

I Want My Music Television: 10/7/13

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.


Dust to Dust – The Civil Wars


I got excited when The Civil Wars showed up together in the same music video thinking that have solved their differences but it turns out all the “new footage was recently found footage from 2011. Bummer.


Another Is Waiting - The Avett Brothers


Even though the song is entitled Another is Waiting and included the line, “Let me see your skeleton” I still do not see how a model being replaced by skeletons waiting in the wings really fits into The Avett Brothers song.


Kinks Shirt - Matt Nathanson


What the frack was that Matt Nathanson? The girl in the Kinks shirt was a dude!?! I know arguably the most known Kinks song is about a transvestite, but c’mon, this video was uncalled for.


High Road - Cults


The lo-fi band Cults are back with what I thought was gong to be a high concept version of the Seven Nation Army video, but it turned out to be a hodgepodge of just random ideas and images.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 10/6/13

Once Upon a Time: As Lost Boy #6 in my high school production of Peter Pan I am not very happy that they have turned Peter Pan evil. He is more Jack Merridew (the episode even featured a conch shell) than the Peter Pan we know and love. Speaking of that conch shell, was the mermaid that blew it supposed to be Aerial? They can make her evil, I do not really care.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Homeland: A quick addendum to my preview of the new season which was too spoilery. Homeland likes to throw I a game changer every couple episodes and Saul throwing Carrie under the bus may be the most shocking yet. Not only did he disclose to the whole nation that she is a crazy person, he actually lied under oath. We actually saw Saul listen to Carrie and Brody having sex last season. The fun of Homeland is watching the show to move on after completely blowing things up (sometimes quite literally) and this is an interesting set up to season three. I hope it does not end with Carrie and Brody on the lamb together. But if Saul’s testimony was the most shocking, Quinn killing the kid was the least shocking. As soon as Quinn was given the okay, I knew he would accidentally kill him, I just thought it would have been the kid under the desk, we just had to wait another thirty seconds for the murder to happen.

Revenge: The second season was rough, hard enough to sit through I was kind of hoping it would get canceled. But it came back complete with a new showrunner. Gone is Declan, Nolan’s money, The Initiative and Carrion (names of which even the characters never want to hear again). Of course we start off two months in the future (some things never change) where we see Emily shot twice in the abdomen by some unseen assailant who she trusts enough to be alone on a yacht with (my way too early prediction is the new French chick). Also gone this season (but not completely off this mortal coil) is Ashley who was sent back to her native land by the blackmailing team of Victoria and Emily. Emily even worked in some revenge essentially ending Conrad’s short run as governor of New York and making him think he has some degenerative disease that will turn him crazy (just thinking he has it will probably turn him crazy).
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

Betrayal: Betrayal sounds like a title that was considered but ended up not used for Revenge. As Revenge sank like a rock last season, it is weird they would team it with a new soap heavy show. Except Betrayal is boring. It came off like the first of a twenty act movie instead of the first episode of a television show. There was probably the reason they heavily featured the last minute of the episode (essentially spoiling the whole thing) in the promos because nothing of note happened except a simpleton may have killed his uncle we barely saw for reasons that were not well explained.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Betrayal on iTunes.

The Voice: I applauded the song selection last week unfortunately some of the songs this week were less inspiring but some guy did pull out an MGMT song and another person dusted off an underappreciated song by Bill Withers. Unfortunately we did not get to see much of the first Creedence Clearwater Revival song on the show as it got montage (I do not count the times Proud Mary was performed because everyone always does the Proud Mary version). I wonder if song selection did Malford Milligan in, he did trot out the well worn Let's Stay Together. Even with the tired song, I still though he was the third best singer this week. Hopefully he gets an invite back next season. Granted they seem to only invite back cute young boys. Which begs the question, where is Jane Smith from last season? She would be a perfect fit for Cee-Lo who was not around last season.

One guy that did get the return invitation was James Irwin (who did not even make my Contestants Who Should Be Brought Back last season) who made history by being the first returnee who got all four chairs to turn around. But I wonder if the coaches were having some button remorse because his performance started out well, they all pushed their button, then sat there stone-faced went he went into the awkward rock portion of the song. After that it seemed like the least competitive fight for a four chair turner ever with Adam even giving him a harsh critique. For some reason James picked Adam and may be the first four chair turner who exists this season.

The big new this week (which is not saying much because there were a lot of weak performances) was the audition of Briana Cuoco. Okay this is mostly because of her famous sister Kaley from The Big Bang Theory. Brianna’s rendition of You and I was pedestrian at best but Kaley lost her mind (like some family members do, but Kaley over did it a bit) when Christina turned around for her sister. Hopefully Briana gets better because I would not mind having Kaley Cuoco on my television, two to three times a week for the rest of the year.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs performed this week with the widget at right.


The Blacklist: Usually with procedurals there is a big twist at the end to the point you expect it and can even guess what it is before it happened, but I never saw Isabella Rossellini turning out to be a human trafficker who rails against human trafficking to eliminate her competition (which is ingenious in an evil kind of way). But it is disappointing that it looks like Elizabeth is just going to ignore the money and passports she found under the floorboards.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: A slight improvement over the premiere and that does not even take into account the cameo of Samuel L. Jackson. But yeah, Sam Jackson was awesome.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Goldbergs: How do you have a show set in the eighties and have a storyline about your mother buying your embarrassing clothes for the first day of school and not play, or at the very least reference Parents Just Don't Understand. Instead they end the episode with a Styx song? Epic fail.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Goldbergs on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: I did not think Tig would end up dead this week, but I was surprised with a test being why he survived but it does make sense (it did not make since that Pope’s men would still care about his vendetta against Tig if he was dead). But in true Sons of Anarchy fashion, you were left wondering the fate of Tig all week, he shows up alive, and then four characters die violently in the episode (and that does not even count the Nazi’s). Thankfully Otto finally met his finale fate, how he made it this long is befuddling. The big shock was the death of the Marshall, he was set up at the major antagonist and now he is completely off the board (unless there is yet another vengeful relative in their family). But the Sons have their hands full with the Irish right now.
You can download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: Blood vs. Water: Finally a challenge the Loved Ones can win, they have most of the muscle on the guys side including a former NFL lineman who pushed around dudes for a living, while the women are going against mostly forty and fifty year olds. Making it easier, one of the stronger returnees Tyson goes out with a shoulder injury. Should be a cake walk right? Right off the bat Brad Culpepper barely beat the aging Gervase, then Katie and Ciera lose to their mothers who are twice their age. At least Ciera put up a fight against her mother, when she went against Kat, it looked like she jumped off the platform just to get away from her competitor. So in two straight seasons, the new tribe has won one team challenge total and four out of sixteen challenges in three seasons before they started to mix up the tribes. It is really time to stop it with the fans vs. favorites concept even if they include loved ones in the equation.

Or just bringing back contestants period aside a rare All-Stars season (at least five seasons apart). Case in point: Colton. The dude caused the ost eye rolling when he cast was announced. He was a character you did not even love to hate, u just hated him so much you wanted to turn the channel. But he came back and he changed, cry a bunch in the second episode but by the second episode he was spreading lies amongst his tribe and making rude comments about them in his confessional. As by the third episode, after realizing he would be first of his tribe voted out, he just up and quit even though his tribe was on a winning streak and may have never gone to Tribal Council. And if that streak continues, there may be a tribe swap sooner than later when he could have been reunited with his fiancé and rebooted his game. Instead he quits and Probst and his tribe just lit into him. Probst even went as far to say he faked his injury One World so he could leave the game. I was a little surprised Probst did not ask Caleb if he wanted to quit with Colton. I kind of wanted Caleb to say, nope, I am good here. Oh well. So good riddance Colton, not only are you a horrible person you are a quitter.

This week we finally saw some loved ones go head to head in an Immunity Challenge and next week we will see it in the Redemption Island Arena when Candice take on her husband John (with Marissa still in the mix). It is one thing to not take your loved one’s spot on Redemption Island, but are you really willing to send them home? It will be interesting if Marissa finishes first, will Candice or John just concede the game to their spouse? Though I hate the Blood vs. Water theme, I have to admit the concept sets up some interesting storylines.
You can stream recent episodes on cbs.com. You can also download Survivor: Blood vs. Water on iTunes.

Modern Family: Our first Dylan sighting of the season, complete with a new haircut. Rumour has it that there is going to be a Modern Family. When I saw the headline I was hoping for a Dylan / Hayley starting a new life themed show, but unfortunately they are looking at one starring Manny's real father. Bummer.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Modern Family on iTunes.

Super Fun Night This was just an abomination. I do not know what I am going to do between Modern Family and Nashville, but it will not be watching this ever again. I implore ABC just to bring Suburgatory back now or if they do not want to out right cancel Super Fun Night, please switch it with Back in the Game, The Neighbors, or even The Goldbergs even though I have problems with that show, it is still at the very least watchable. Super Fun Night is not. ABC, you know Super Fun Night is not getting a second season already, just cut ties now before you do irreconcilable damage to Nashville's ratings when people like me flee your network as soon as Super Fun Night starts and never comes back.
If you must, you can stream episodes on Hulu. You can also download Super Fun Night on iTunes

The Bridge: Do we finally get to hear what cassette Sonya was so desperate to recover after her sister’s car was totaled and it was… I have no clue what song that was. As for the actual episode, it did not feel like a season finale it all; it more felt like a middle of a season episode. I guess that happens when you capture your big bad two episodes ago. The only plot point was that Linder’s “bride” was rescued. Sure some things were set up for a second season, the FBI let Charlotte know they are on to her just after she set up her new business with the Fausto (how her boy toy made it through the season alive was shocking). Of course Daniel stumbled onto a dead ninety-nine year old woman with a ton of cash, including Euros, stacked in her bathroom. And it looks like next season will be Marco trying to break into prison to kill David Tate. Hopefully that is more entertaining than the last couple episodes of this season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Bridge on iTunes.

Nashville: I really liked the addition of the new singer from the reality show (and the show really needs a kick after last week’s bore of a premiere). Or more specially, I really like her as a bright eyed foil to Juliette’s jaded pop star, it looks like it will be more interesting than the Juliette / Rayna rivalry. I really liked the look on Juliette’s face when Layla said she was singing on of Juliette’s classic which was only matched by her look when the new bean counter said Layla’s song was number one on iTunes. I hope they keep Layla naïve and do not give her some deep dark secret like they give everyone on a soap opera.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Nashville on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I always love it when they find a way to get Penny and Sheldon together, but I could have done without so much time with the other teams. Howard and Amy even joked how they have never spent any time together, and after this episode it may be wise never to give them screen time again even if Neil Diamond is involved.
You can stream recent episodes on cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Parenthood: This season token Friday Night Lights cameo is Jess Meriwether as Kristina’s campaign manager. You have to think Julie Taylor sits around wondering, “Why am I stuck on some crappy alien love story show on The CW with Hastings Ruckle; where is my Parenthood role?” It is odd that Lyla Garrity is the only original cast member that has been invited show but Jess is the third of the newbies to make an appearance. Jess was not the only new face this week as the dude from The Office also popped up. But I have to wonder if the show is really going to go the route where Julia ends up in the arms of the dude from The Office while Joel spends some quality time with Penny from Lost.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.