57 Channels and Only This Is On: 12/27/15

Homeland: Well that was two straight seasons with kind of subdued finales. Last year was all about Carrie's father's funeral and this season Carrie foils the terrorists plot in the first act. I figured the rest of the episode would focus on catching Allison but there were a lot of scene inter-spliced with Carrie's boss weirdly coming on to her (I think?) the whole Quinnn thing and when they finally got back to Allison, they just sprayed the car like a mobster movie which left me thinking, wait was that actually Allison in the trunk, maybe I miss saw and it was really just one of the human trafficking girls from the house. But I re-watched that see, paused and zoomed it and am pretty sure that was Allison. Maybe a season of getting Allison out of Russia would have been a good set up. Oh well. So what is next, will next season be Carrie married to Otto still in Berlin or is she going to change her mind and take Saul up on his offer and we will be in another war zone next year?

The Affair: When Noah came up as the focus of Act 1, I thought, well he probably did not kill Scotty and it will end up whoever is the focus of Act II. Except at the end of Act I, we see a drunken Helen run over Scotty after Noah made her take the wheel. Well that explains why she paid for his high powered lawyer. Then the lawyer of all people ended up spoiling the surprise twist by suggesting to Noah that they should float the idea in court that Alison pushed Scotty in from of the car. Then I though, oh, that is extremely plausible. And of course that turned out to be what happened. So Noah is left to decide whether to let his wife or the mother of his child take the rap, of course he takes option three and falls on the sword. Not that I think he will spend much time in jail. I do not think the Scotty case is closed and season three will end with someone else taking the fall. But what I do not understand is the whole Alison's baby daddy situation. They spent half the season teasing Scotty was the father and that was the big news he had over Alison. But it turns out Cole is the father but does not know. But if Scotty, who did not seem like the smartest man on Earth, can figure this out how has Cole not? Can Cole not count nine months? It never really accorded to me because they do plenty of time jumping between episodes so it was unclear where they are in the timeline any given episode but how does Cole not learn when Alison is pregnant not do the math? I have had issues with the show from the beginning, but I an still intrigued where the show goes next.

The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines: Three weeks ago there were three crazy Brazilians on my television screen, and now there are none. Hurumph. Yeah, this format sucks massively. They they even messed up the best challenge of the season by not having everyone participate in trivia instead having half the people answers questions (I am too lazy to go back and rewatch but Nany's cousin got some of the easiest questions in the history of the show) the the dumbest people did not even get a chance to show the world how dumb they are. But as much as the show is trying to ruin the format, the competitor are giving a valiant effort at acting crazy. And things do not get much crazier than Abram and his head tattoo (even more socking than Abram's arrival: his brother looks and acts like everyone's tax guy). Knowing CT and Zach are coming at some point, is it too easy to predict that Abram literally kills the guy Cara Maria has been hooking up with and that is why we need two new bloodlines?
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Bloodlines on iTunes.