57 Channels and Only This Is On: 7/17/16

Ray Donovan: Oh Bridget that was harsh, especially with the fake Boston accent. And of course Conner was just oblivious to the whole thing complaining gun shots ruining his television show. Why are the sons on anti-hero show always the most worthless and incompetent? And just how many times has Terry sat alone in the center of his gym with a gun? Well at least he had company this time around.

Roadies: It was clear by showing up and sitting next to fake Lindsey Buckingham on Saturday Night Live that the real Lindsey Buckingham had a sense of humor, but who really knew just how funny he was? Just the reaction shot of him with Rainn Wilson were great. Speaking of whom, I wonder if Rainn’s character was based on anyone in particular and this was Cameron Crowe’s revenge against some bad reviews.

Murder in the First: Kind of a weird start to the season, in the first episode, Hildy gets a dire diagnosis, but then in the second, they were just like, oops, we were looking at someone else’s records. Then Terry kills what looks to be an unarmed black man, how topical, but again, another false alarm, the perp’s gun fell out of his waist in the chase. Two storylines that looked like they could have been season long arcs that the writers were just, um, nevermind.
You can download Murder in the First on iTunes.

BrainDead: Sure I laughed at the cat CAT scan. Which begs the question what do those bugs do to cats? It clearly makes humans more partisan. And are these bug controlling their humans or just heightening already existing views? The head dive makes it seem like the former. But does that make the bugs partisan or are they just taking over the already held beliefs in the human. At any rate, those previously on segments are just gold.
You can download BrainDead on Amazon Instant Video, free with a Prime membership.

Pretty Little Liars: What a horrible plan. Some dude ran in front of you when you were following him when he kidnapped your friend, which is a legitimate excuse to the police. Instead they come uup with an elaborate plan of leaving his phone on a train (which Spencer ended up being too drunk to do) and burn the car that hit him which would have been extremely conspicuous, at Mona knew a guy who does not ask questions.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Casual: I did not see the episode title was “Threesome” until after the episode ended. The teenagers were obvious (is it horrible of me to think he may be faking), but the more interesting part of the episode were the emotional threesomes, Valerie is stuck between the two guys, one who is pushing hard and the other who is drunk texting random emojis. Then Alex is not even in a threesome, it is more of a foursome with his crazy ex, her fiancé (possibily ex, that will be one weird working environment if he finds out about them; although they seemed to figure out about him and the secritary) and their pathological assistant.
You can watch Casual on Hulu.

Mr. Robot: What a weird way to start the season, Tyrell was completely absent from the marketing of the second season except being named dropped by President Obama leading me to wonder his involvement in the second. Then he was the first person we see in season two, of course never to be seen again in the double episode premiere. One thing I went back and forth on all first season was: is Tyrell real? That opening scene made me lean back to the delusion side. Then when Elliot asked Mr. Robot where Tyrell is, it reinforced that theory as if when they are not out and about, all of Elliot’s personas are hanging out in his head like Inside Out.

But then Tyrell’s picture was plastered on an episode of Nancy Grace (natch) which pulled me back to the real person side and that maybe the reason Elliot ask Mr. Robot about Tyrell because Elliot knew Tyrell was in the game room, then Mr. Robot took over and when Elliot took over again, Tyrell was missing. I did come up with another theory in that Tyrell is both real and fake. When Elliot meets Tyrell in the Pilot, Elliot decide he is going to be his patsy and to best set him up as the fall guy had to become him and who we saw ever since was Elliot’s delusion. The flaw in that is where does the pregnant wife come from, could she be another delusion?

Speaking of patsies, RIP Gideon. I was surprised he even showed up again and of course he will not again. Though I was unclear what the other guy’s motive was: revenge, fame, hired by Evil Corp to make Gideon the fall guy? Poor Gideon, the ultimate wrong guy wrong time. But really the most interesting part of the first two episode was Elliot saying that we, the audience probably does not trust him the way he does not trust him. Very true, I am beginning to believe less and less of what my eyes see on this show. I am just hoping this does not lead to some sort of St. Elsewhere finale (where the audience learned the whole show was taking place in the mind of an autistic kid) and everything we have seen was taking place in kid Elliot’s mind who is really laying in a coma from the time his father pushed him out a window.
You can download Mr. Robot on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals III: Another meh challenge (okay, Vince belly flopping was somewhat entertaining), even the Jungles were stupid too this week. What ever happened to the physical challenge where teams go head to head, almost every challenge this season teams have been taking turns. But at least we got a “Greatest Moments” episode this week. Granted it was basically twenty-five minutes of waiting for the CT using Johnny as a backpack. Weird that they completely ignored all the fighting or the time Julie almost killed Veronica. I guess it was not surprising that the avoided the time Tonya emptied Beth’s luggage into the pool considering the things that happened behind the scenes with here.
You can download The Challenge: Rivals III on iTunes.

Tyrant: These types of family drama follow a familiar format; the older daughter gets a storyline (for better or worse) while the younger brother just stays in the background. This show kind of flipped that, well both children are mostly worthless, but every once and a while the son does something to remind you, oh yeah, he is a gay homosexual, but really never push that storyline very far. After three seasons, they finally gave the daughter something to do in being captured. I am with Barry, you cannot trade the daughter for the wife, they would likely just kill both, really, the obvious answer is to get the American general exactly what he wants and have them send in Seal Team 6 to rescue the daughter.
You can download Tyrant on iTunes.

Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll: Networks got interesting with their On Demand channels. NBC made the most noise by releasing the entire season of Aquarius after its series premiere. What I found more interesting was FX released uncensored version of this show on its On Demand channel. But much like NBC who did not air drop Aquarius this season, for some reason did not upload uncensored episode leaving me to wonder just what Denis Leary is saying whenever the audio when silent. Hurumph.
You can download Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll on iTunes.