The Ten Best Television Shows of 2015-16

For my list of best shows of the year, I only consider shows that finished their seasons between July 2015 and June 2016.

1. Mr. Robot 1.x

2. Hannibal3.x

3. Masters of Sex 3.x

4. Angie Tribeca 1.x

5. The Americans 4.x

6. Marvel's Agent Carter 2.x

7. Ash vs. Evil Dead 1.x

8. Orphan Black 4.x'

9. Blindspot 1.x

10. Black-ish 2.x

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/29/16

House of Lies: This was the second time this season the group got high to close a deal. Nice work if you can get it.

Penny Dreadful: So we do get a full flashback episode with Vanessa in the mental hospital and it was Frankenstein’s monster as the orderly. Kind of horror movies set up, girl in mental hospital and orderly learn to accept each other, a quick scare in the middle, and then at the end we finally see the Lucifer.. and then his brother… Dracula? And Lucifer is scared of Dracula? Mmm, alright. I kind of wish this was mixed in with other character’s segments because there was not much going on to fill an entire hour.

Gotham: I think I actually liked Clayface as Gordon more than I liked Gordon himself. Of course none of the guys figured out it was an imposter and it took Barbra only thirty seconds spot that it was not him. Speaking of doppelgangers, that last person out of the bus certainly looked a lot like Bruce with Edward Scissorhand hair.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Blindspot: So just who is Jane Doe? Taylor Shaw was a very compelling story arc that apparently is not who she is (though this is television, they can always have a twist next season and be like, nope, she really was Taylor, the bones were planted and Kurt’s dad was brainwashed; and of course my clone theory could still be in play). So Kurt arrests Jane, who surprisingly goes willingly. Sure he does not even give a reason, what exactly is she under arrest for? He does not know she killed a dude. She did not still someone else’s identity, it was assigned to her by the FBI themselves. I do have a sinking suspicion that the start of the next season, one of her tattoos will be integral to a case Kurt is working on and he will begrudgingly let her out of custody.

The Path: So the season ends where the first episode did, but instead of Eddie hallucination the leader dying with a snake slithering on him, he actually sees the cancer stricken leader up and walking around… or did he? A pretty vague ending. Still some other plot points things left unresolved. I spent most of the season wondering if certain characters were going to leave the cult while other would join. It seemed like the husband died under iffy circumstances yet that was not brought up this week and it seemed that the FBI guy may actually be back in, especially if he starts to believe Eddie’s prayer helped. And I am not entirely sure what I saw at the end. Cal spoke of a miracle a couple episodes ago, is the leader now cured and that is the miracle? Is Eddie hallucinating the leader, who is already dead, and the leader came to him in a passing of the torch situation?
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

The Americans: If one would flip, I always thought Philip would be the one as he actually seem to have empathy for his victims while Elizabeth is more single minded at her tasks. Last week was the first time I remember seeing empathy from her asking out of her con on the Asian people and then again when she got a call from the wife. Of course all that went out the window when she stabbed a dude in the neck in front of her daughter. Hard to claim to be a non-violent spy when you can kill a man that easily and not blink.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

Nashville: The show was a late cancel and it did seem like there was a good chance it was coming back (they just hired a new showrunner for a potential next season) but it did seem like they rushed to put a nice bow on every storyline (well, except Juliet’s plane going missing and of course Layla can never end up happy). Especially the Maddie, she gets mad when Deacon tries to save her from a skeevy dude at a concert caressing her leg, but is glad when he is there when a skeevy producer does the same thing. But it was definitely time for this show to go, probably could have ended last season.

The Challenge: Rivals III: So this is the fourth episode and we still have had only one elimination. As much as I enjoy see Camillinator just going H.A.M. on everyone, let’s cut some of that down and get back to one elimination per episode. Or cut down on time spent on challenges by getting rid of heat based challenges. Sure I enjoy seeing people dropping from heights into water, but we only saw three heats this week and we still have three or four left to get through. (also ending on a is Camilla hurt cliffhanger loses its suspense when we see her at the elimination on the promo for next week, stupid promo monkeys.) Figure out how to have everyone go at once because these heat based challenges are getting too repetitive. Or do a spelling bee, c’mon, who’s against a spelling be challenge (except the actual contestants)?
You can download The Challenge: Rivals III on iTunes.

Orphan Black: The Donny getting arrested scene was great, probably the most entertaining this season, but why did Allison not go down for the drug business too? As great as Donny in jail will likely be, Allison in prison would be so much better.
You can download Orphan Black on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/22/16

Once Upon a Time: The best part (and really, increasingly the only good part) of the show is the pre-tease break. Except this season they defeated Hades in the anti-penultimate episode and we got a two hour tease of what is to come next. Color me uninterested already. So we meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde who split themselves into two different entities which was just introduced to have the Evil Queen and Regina at the same time. I am guess they are going to explain the Evil Queen did not die from her heart being crushed because she is so evil she does not even have a heart. And how good is purely good Regina if she is willing crush someone’s heart? I was more in in the quick page flip in the books in the library where we saw Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. I would rather take a trip through American folklore than a severely watered down version of Penny Dreadful.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

House of Lies: It was pretty clear that movie producers in the eighties were doing copious amounts of cocaine by the types of movies they greenlit: a mannequin romantic comedy, one with a dead guy as the main character, both inexplicably got sequels. But the most shocking movie that got made with 20/20 hindsight was the feel good racist comedy Soul Man where noted white dude C. Thomas Howell takes tanning pills to get a scholarship for African-Americans. With all the outrage of blackface and cultural appropriation these days I thought we would never see that storyline ever again. It probably also lessens the outrage by having black guy (with a white mother) play the faker as white people do not care much about whiteface. Though I still do not know how there was not more outrage surrounding White Chicks.

Penny Dreadful: So Vanessa has met Dracula before. I thought we would get a lengthy flashback in a future episode; instead we get a one minute scene tacked on the end of the episode. Maybe it is just a tease for a lot more flashbacks next week. And was that even Dracula? It looked more like Frankenstein’s monster in his previous life without hair. And about Frank, was that remembering his younger self? Bu it looked like that kid was near death. Unless Dr. Frankenstein implanted a child’s brain into the monster’s body. Or maybe he has residual memories of all his body parts. As for his creator, we did learn his buddy’s experiment is only temporary. The question now is has Dr. Jekle already taken his cure or does that come later?

Quantico: No wonder Asher could not make it at Quantico, dude was not even smart enough to jump out of the car before it went over the bridge. But then again, how smart am I for making it all the way through the season?
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Gotham: How disappointing that Hugo Strange is implanting new personas in the people he resurrects but Fish Mooney remembers who she was. I thought we were finally going to learn what Batman villain she turns in to. But we did get Clayface… I think.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Blindspot: Wow that was the worst death scene in recent memory. But I guess when you are killed off a show, why bother trying anymore (well except if you hope to get more work somewhere else). But maybe the bigger bombshell was that Kurt’s father confessed to killing Taylor Shaw like everyone thought prior to Jane Doe showing up with markers saying she was and was not Taylor. We do have to wait until the finale to see if this was the ratings of a delusional man or a real bedside confession, but you have to assume it is the latter. Unless, could this be an Orphan Black situation and Jane Doe is a clone of Taylor? That could be really interesting and explain the DNA inconsistencies.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Castle: It was probably for the best that ABC canned this show, most shows have a shelf life of five seasons if they are lucky so eight is enough (bad old person’s pun intended). But oh, was that final scene crammed in. I guess we can assume had the show been renewed and Kate was not returning, she does not survive the gunshot. Actually that scene seemed crammed in to as if they tacked that on after learning Stana Katic was not coming back.
You can download Castle on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Gee, and I just got done talking about the worst death scene, this one came pretty close with Hive and low rent Electro bro-ing down before their inevitable deaths. And this is exactly why I hate it when shows open up X amount of time in the future before flashing back, we knew someone die and Yoyo’s cross had something to do with it and then in the last episode five different characters played hot potatoes with it. But of course Electro ended up with it because there can be no happy couples on a Weadon show (Really the only fake out they had was when Fitz had the cross for a scene). But hey at least we finally got rid of Ward… unless he turns out to be what the Irish doctor was working on. Please no. That body did look feminine. A mate for Vision? Also six months in the future Daisy has gone rouge and Coulson is reporting to a director (is that Talbert or is there a new head of SHIELD). And why six months? The show seems to move in real time and six months puts us in November when presumably the season will start in late September. Doctor Strange comes out in November but I doubt there will be much cross over with that movie. I wonder if we will have to wait a month or two until we see that scene and prior to that is Coulson searching for Daisy or in that basically where the season will start?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Path: All season I have ping-ponged back and forth predicting this character is going to join the cult while that one would be joining. Here we are with one episode left and it looks like I was wrong every time. There was a time I thought FBI guy would join, but after his diatribe with Eddie, that is never going to happen, especially after learning Allison’s husband did die under suspicious circumstances. And Allison looks to be coming back into the fold (although that may not last long after she sees the autopsy. I thought the teens would run away together, and Hawk actually did leave, but sneaky Cal nipped that in the bud. But the biggest transition is Eddie. They teased his moments of doubt early in the season, but mostly re-found his way after time in the program in the room. Was that punch his way of exiting the cult?
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: Usually I have a good sense of how the winds are blowing going into the finals but I was a bit shocked at how Aubrey did not win and it was not even because of that silly evict a jury member (worst twist since Redemption Island). Sure her Final Tribal was less than stellar (how do you not play up how well you adapted after your two biggest allies were pulled from the game?). But congratulations to Michele who did a much better job playing up her underdog role than Aubrey. Poor Tai, does not even get a pity vote. I originally thought it was a bad decision to split the votes and not take Cydney to the final three but in retrospect, I am not sure it matter with Michele winning either way. Maybe Cydney wins the Jury Veto (which is a stretch because for a Brawn, she was not that great in challenges) and bans Julia, then maybe Tai could have gotten Aubrey, Joe, Neil, and Debbie, but I think instead, Michele wins by a larger margin.

But Michele winning was not the biggest shock of the night, seriously, what was Sia doing there? And was that even really her? In real time it sounded to me her accent was coming and going. If it was, Sia just continues to get weirder. Wow. Then we got a tease for next season: Millennials vs. Gen X. Meh. Didn’t the last time they separated end up being an epic fail (that would be the Jimmy Johnson season that was won by Fabio). Probably one of the bottom five seasons of all time. And just by the trailer the Millennials were getting on my nerve already. If they are going to divide by age, I wish they would have done three of four tribes: people in the their twenties, thirties, and forties plus, and maybe fifties plus.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

The Americans: Kind of a throwaway episode because I never thought Reverend Tim was ever in much danger. Really having an emotionally pregnant woman now knowing their secret was the bigger danger. The more ingesting part of the episode was Stan’s old boss getting approached by the KGB. I kind of wanted him to take the offer. Instead he runs through a glass door. Not the best escape plan. It will be interesting how this effects the main storyline.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals III: The first challenge really suck, now this, this is the challenge I have come to know and love, grinding on a bar of soap. Awesome. Not so awesome is replacing LeRoy with some nobodies. Actually worse than nobody, somebody who thinks acting crazy will get them more screen time. More annoying was T.J. canceling the Jungle for no good reason. So that is two of three episodes where no one when home.
You can download The Challenge: Rivals III on iTunes.

The Blacklist: There was never a point where I thought Lizzie was dead, the only question I had was who helped her. I had thought it was whoever was trying to kidnap Lizzie but it ended up being Tom and Red’s henchwoman. And I long assumed the person that was trying to kidnap was her not so dead mother. Nope, wrong again, it was her dad, or someone claiming to be her dad. That puts a crinkle in my long theory that Red was Lizzy’s dad. After the chunkiness of this season (somewhat reasonable due to a real life pregnancy) this sets up a very interesting season four.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Orphan Black: Crystal is quickly moving up my Clone Power Ranking. She almost made me forget there was no Allison this week. Almost. Seriously, do not make me go a week without an Allison fix.
You can download Orphan Black on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/15/16

Once Upon a Time: So as predicted Robin Hood died and Captain Hook made his way back to Storybrooke. The only question now is what are they going to do in the final two episodes now that Hades was defeated? The only unresolved issue is that Belle remains under her sleeping spell. Maybe we will get more than the usual tease of the next Disney property they exploit. When do they go to Tron?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

House of Lies: Oh, no, not the Douchebag Twins. And yet, even with an episode that saw the not so triumphant return of the Douchebag Twins, they did not even give us the most disturbing scene, that was instead Clyde and Doug chugging Jennie’s pump and dump.

Penny Dreadful: Dorian and Lily were wholly absent from the premiere and that was a quite unexpected way for them to return to the show. I fully assumed that that was the type of show they would enjoy but I guess it makes more sense that they would rather participate than just watch. I fear (and would be kind of disappointed) that she will end up like the transvestite from last season. Then you have Dr. Jekyll who has a formula that can turn a criminally insane person into fully functioning human being. Of course there are going to be side effects, the question is has he tried it on himself yet or not. Dracula again is resigned to the final scene again. Last week I feared when we did not get to see him it was going to be a Master on The Strain situation who ended turning out to be a not very scary looking Muppet, but we did get to see Dracula who ended up looking like a low rent Matt Dillon which I guess is better than a low rent Muppet.

Quantico: So it turns out the football player was yet another pawn though the whole using his voice on the phone with Alex was a bit of a stretch. Instead the traitor was the Quantico teacher because… oh who know. Even when he eventually gives his Bond villain type speech I doubt it will make any sense.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Gotham: I guess I was wrong with Galavan killing the Captain. It turns out Galavan is really bad at killing people. Tabatha also landed in the hospital and not the morgue. Alfred gets thrown out of a window and was still able to walk away to fight some more. I was going to say Galavan was as good at killing as everyone was at trying to kill him; just how many bullets can that guy take? Then Penguin and Butch show up with a bazooka. Awesome.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Blindspot: Can we get more drugged up chick in the elevator? She was by far the best part of the episode.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I have an irrational hatred of movie theaters so naturally I did not see Captain America: Civil War prior to this episode so I guess I now know who wins. Yeah, D.C.’s movies may have sucked but their separating television from the movies is looking better every time SHIELD spoils a movie. Granted really they have only spoiled the last two Captain America movies. Oh yeah, and they killed off Peggy Carter. Booooo. I was really hoping she would get some anti-aging serum like the Nazi got last season. What a shame that they may possibly kill off her character and cancel her show in the same month. Hopefully ABC finds a way to keep that show going. Oh well. Sending Lash after Hive seemed like a great idea but they kind of overlooked two huge plot point. Okay, Lash, the Inhuman killer can ward off Hive’s parasites, fine, whatever. But why did he not kill Daisy, and not only did he not kill her, he actually helped her and saved her from Hive’s trance? Andrew’s last sliver of humanity was kind of a big stretch.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Path: Last episode, Cal mentioned before killing a dude that the next leader would perform a miracle, could Sarah saving the baby be that miracle? Certainly Cal would no be too happy he is not the chosen one. Maybe that is why he tried to hook up with her.
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: I have long thought that winning Individual Reward was advantageous to your game, especially in a case where you pick two people and then there are four people made at you back at camp. But I never thought winning a Reward would turn out as badly as this. To have to be pulled from the game because you ate too much meat, ouch. And we have known this for a while that this was bad. How many times in the early seasons did we see people get Rewards only to spend a lot of time in the woods with a pile of leaves? Seriously people, Reward Challenges are not worth it. At least we did not get the stupid Survivor Action where morons bid on food instead of waiting for an advantage. And that was the second pull out this season which negated what could have been a fascinating Tribal Council. On one side you had a strong Joe/Aubrey alliance. On the other was Michelle. Then there is Cydney in the middle but seemed to be leaning Michelle. Then you had Tai and his Idol so he was not going anywhere. When he and Michelle were alone I was waiting for someone to come up with a plan where he give her his Idol because no one would vote for him because of it. But then he seemed to make up with Aubrey. Really what it may have come down to it is who talked to Tai last. Instead we had our third unplayed Idol, one that went home with someone being pulled, one that went home with someone because he did not play it expecting a SuperIdol, and one that did not get to played because the last Tribal that it could have been played at never happened. Kind of sums up this lackluster season.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

Black-ish: Isn’t it too early for the show to bring in a baby? Usually sitcoms do that when they run out of ideas, it should be too early for that, it I only season two. At least wait until season five.
You can download Black-ish on iTunes.

The Americans: There are few thing lis scary than watching The Day After thirty plus years later. I kind of had to laugh at everyone's reaction. Interesting Philip's reaction was maybe we should not give that destructive virus to their government after watching. It is about time for a shajke up in the show. Maybe instead of the FBI finding them out as tradors, maybe the twist could be Philip becoming sympathetic to Americans.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals III: Poor Leroy, that is two straight seasons he goes home early for medical reasons. But we essentially had a two and a half premiere episode. I guess that is needed to get to know the new cast and introduce the season, except the two people who went into The Jungle I had no clue they were even on this season until they got picked to go in. Hopefully we go back to one elimination per episode because there was just too much filler in these first two episodes.
You can download The Challenge: Rivals III on iTunes.

The Blacklist: There was a point when I thought Scottie was going to turn out to be Lizzy’s mother, but no, she is Tom’s… or least that is what Red told him. The episode was alright but as a backdoor Pilot, I am not ready to watch another show which is just The Blacklist with the gender of the two leads being swapped. Maybe I will watch if the show is filler between a break of the ordinal.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/8/16

Once Upon a Time: Learning how Emma got that silly Thriller jacket is the Jack’s tattoo episode on Lost. It I time to give this show an end date and wrap it up. The promo monkeys also teased a death, it is not Regina or Emma, my first thought was Robin Hood, but then I thought could that funeral we see be just be a cheap ploy and they are just having one for Hook after the fact? I do have a sinking suspicion that whoever does die will be the key to get Hook back to the land of the living.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Fear the Walking Dead: When Strand was carrying that dude back to his hotel, I thought he was holding him a little too cloe and actually thought he might take advantage of him. Strand did, just not in the way I was thinking. Except, flash-forward to the end and he actually does make out with the dude. But why exactly did he run when the other people boarded? Actually, I spent most of the episode thinking I missed something. I rven went back to see if I missed an episode. But no, maybe jut bad editing.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

Quantico: C’mon, you cannot have a pedophile character on the show and them name him after a sitting governor who was running for president. I do not care about your politics, that is just wrong and really kind of appalling. Then the promo monkeys promised that next week we will learn who the traitor is. Um, did they not reveal that this week? It seemed pretty clear the former football player was the traitor. Unless he had an accomplice.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Gotham: Has Galavan’s ears grown since he died? But anyway. We also got a tease of the Mad Hatter with Hugo Strange choosing Alice in Wonderland as a persona for one of his resurrected patients. I wonder if we already met who he read the story to or if we actually get to meet him. Well Captain Barnes needs a way to get back on the show now that he is dead.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Blindspot: Oh my, Chrissy Seaver went full MacGyver defending thee cottage. Although I guess you can say she went full McGruber by blowing it up. Was that really necessary.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Castle: Kind of disappointing that they brought in a Firefly co-star only to be a run of the mill killer of the week. Adam Baldwin really set the bar for shameless guest spots. Actually, since Backett seems like she will not be back next season, how about bringing Baldwin back full time? Oh yeah, I guess his TNT boat show is still on the air.
You can download Castle on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Holy Billy Riggins sighting! Although I could have sworn he has been on the show before and if my memory serves me correctly (which it rarely does anymore) he was some random civilian in a restaurant a couple seasons ago. I kind of thought he was going to be a red shirt but he actually made it through the episode. But what was with the lack of fire power in fighting Hive? How about taking a grenade or a rocket launcher, or some alien tech left by the invaders from the first Avenger’s movie? All they brought was regular guns and some laser blaster.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Path: Alright, things are finally starting to come to ahead. Cal caught Eddie aiding Allison, Mary confronted Cal, Hawk’s girl’s family left the cult, and then Cal up and killed a dude after leaning The Path is a scam. Now Eddie and Hawk are out on a two-hundred and fifty mile walk. Should be interesting to see wear all this goes as the season starts to conclude. I still think Hawk will chose the girl over the cult, Eddie will chose Allison over the cult too. Then there is FBIC guy who may just picked the cult over work, especially if they help his daughter.
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: I knew they really should have gotten rid of Tai last week, now he is guaranteed the final four with his Idol. Although after irking everyone this week, I do not think he is as likely to win if he makes the final. They should have blindsided him this week except Joe and Cydney (I think this is the first time I even mentioned either of them; not good for someone who makes it to the final five) were dead set on Jason. So who goes home next week, Tai has the Idol and this is the last he can use it so unlikely he gets any votes. Michelle does look like to be on the bottom but the promo monkeys make it look like she buddies up with Tai. That would be awesome if he give her his Idol and sends home one of the other three. The only thing better would be Michelle laying Ti to get his Idol and then everyone votes him out. Tai does seem that gullible.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

The Americans: So Martha is actually going to make it to Russia. I wonder if we will actually follow her there or that is the last we see of her. If Nina was still around I figure they would run into each other but no fish out of water buddy comedy scenes for those two. Kind of an odd ending, it almost felt like a series finale. Instead it will likely be the calm before the storm.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals III: We usually only get one Challenge per year but when the last season sat nicely in between the Survivor hiatus I suggested that the shows should always alternate. Apparently someone was listening because just as Survivor is running down, we get a surprise season of The Challenge. Rivals and Exes has been some of the most entertaining recent seasons of the show and they sort of combined them with the first ever co-ed version of Rivals (alternating boys and girls eliminations was always silly especially when we are supposed to be considered equals these days). Unfortunately that was one of the most boring first challenges ever. The first time someone dropped their partner was kind of entertaining, but they did not even drop into water (a Challenge staple). And then it just kept on dragging on. I thought around the time Johnny Bananas went, well at least he is the last one, but then there were about four more rounds after that. Ugg. Hopefully they have something better planned for later in the season.
You can download The Challenge: Rivals III on iTunes.

The Blacklist: So this was essentially an introduction for the proposed Tom Keene spin-off with presumably Famke Janssen playing the Red part. We will get more next week, but that better get much interesting because I was kind of meh on the idea so far.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 5/1/16

Fear the Walking Dead: So Junkie Riggins learned that zombies cannot tell you are living if you are covered in zombie guts. But we have known that for a long time, so what a boring episode. Is this just what the show is going to be, discovering things we already know?
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

Lucifer: So Lucifer dies, goes to Hell, finds the gates are locked and gets to come back to Earth. Alrighty. And then later he says his father gave him the get out of Hell free card that he gave the crooked cop. Huh? But at least we got some intrigue for the next season. At first I thought they were going to pull the annoying fade to black ploy when Lucifer took a dramatic pause when his brother asked who escaped from Hell as for the reason God let him back to Earth. But we did get the one word answer before the season ended, “Mum.” Mmmmmm. Who knew angels had a mother? Unless it is more of a metaphorical mum. I am guessing this “mum” who gave the lady cop her powers to make Lucifer more human.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Blindspot: The show actually managed to combine my two least favorite plots these types of shows do: the school shooting and authoritarians taking advantage of kids.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Castle: Having a guy cheating death was entertaining, but c’mon, surviving a bullet to the head? That was a bit much. I did peg the crush as the baddie of the week, she was way too quick to accept a date and then plan it for a half an hour later.
You can download Castle on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: So we got to learn the power of the Australian dude this week: he is some sort of microwave man who can turn anything into a bomb. I guess that is kind of cool for a bad guy but the idea of a superpower was always going to be more interesting than whatever you actually get. But that was really the only interested thing that happened this week. Seriously, how anticlimactic was the team taking down Hydra?
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Path: Oh yeah, Hawk is leaving the cult for the chick. Except the only problem is that her family might be joining. This may be a runaway situation by the end of the season.
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: And here in lies the big problem with recent seasons of Survivor, contestants have learned not to vote out the annoying people because you can win against them in the finals. So Jason gets a pass despite being the obvious choice while the tribe cuts loose the eye candy. Hurmph. But really what should had happened was when whoever broached the subject (I think it was Aubrey but am too lazy to look it up) everyone else should have realize, she is going to take Jason to the finals instead of me, we should get Aubrey out, and then I can take Jason to the finals. But the editors actually got me to think Cydney and other hot chick were going to flip. That was the right choice in my eyes. It is better to be in a four person alliance with someone who has no chance of getting any jury votes besides Scot than possibly fourth and fifth in a five person alliance with two people likely to beat you in the finals (Tai and Aubrey) especially since one has an Idol and an unknown to you advantage. Sure worst case scenario he plays the Idol and then uses his extra vote to break a three-three tie next week, except he did not play his Idol and you could have gotten him out.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

The Americans: Meh, we basically ended where we started, Martha back in the safe house with nothing changed except Henry getting his first beer. Something better happen next episode.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Very noticeable that Lizzie had a closed casket. It was also interesting that Aram was talking about standing over an empty grave with Red. So are we going to have to wait until the season finale to see a not so dead Elizabeth? Only three episodes to find out.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/24/16

Once Upon a Time: When they said Dorothy did not have anyone to give her true love’s kiss, my first thought was, are they really going to turn red Riding Hood lesbian? But then I vaguely remember Mulan being into chicks, so maybe it would be her. For a fleeting moment I thought true love’ kiss would come from Toto, but no, they actually turned Red Riding Hood gay. Alrighty.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

House of Lies: So did the cobra and lion fight or have sex? But they could have had a longer “previously on” segment because I barely remember who Steven Weber or that other guy talked to were. Then I completely forgot Clyde and the weird chick was still a thing.

Fear the Walking Dead: I am they guy who always thinks the people on these show should be more trusting and should be taking in as many people as they can to ward off the zombies, but even I would say no to taking in someone else’s kid. I may take kindness on an orphan but survivalist dad and grown son can take care of the two small children
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

Supergirl: This show is cheesy, and I am fine with that, but there is cheesy fun and eye rolling cheesy and Surpergirl being able to break the mind control with some speech about hope was eye rolling cheesy. But I did like that it did not work completely and Non still had the ability to explode every human’s skull even if they were no longer under his spell. Of course the big question was who, or what, was in pod at the end? I vote for Krpto.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: So we actually learned who killed Bruce’s parents: Hugo Strange. Maybe it is because I have seen the Wayne’s die so many times in my life; the reveal was not the biggest reveal. The bigger Hugo Strange reveal of the week was he was finally able to resurrect someone and that someone was Theo Gallavan. Just how many more will he be able to resurrect before Jim is able to shut him down? I think we have seen bodies that liik like Fish and Jerome in those floating tanks.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Blindspot: Oh wow, what a great plan by Rich Dot Com. Get that guy his own spin off.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Early in the series, Skye wad the clear weakest link in the acting department but over the seasons became more comfortable in the role. But goodness, evil Daisy was hard to watch. They need to cure her quick, or at the very least do what they did in those early episodes and have her jump in a swimming pool while wearing a red dress to distract from her acting.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Path: So the cult may be a drug smuggling front, I guess that make the whole Peru trips make more sense. If true, the question is who knows? Will Eddie learn of the drugs when he gets to 7R? Is Cal one of the few because he is 10R? Are the drugs they get people off other drugs what they are smuggling or are they also smuggling other more conventional drugs. And I am starting to thinking the FBI guy might be buying into some of this. Mary’s story last week was convincing and itb is weird to open up about your real life problems while undercover.
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: When they introduced the SuperIdol I was a bit skeptical because someone only has two Idols at the same time about once every four seasons, and though it does not look like it will be used this season, the SuperIdol did play a huge part in the episode when Tai refused to Voltron his Idol with Jason’s to save Scot. We have had wild Tribal Councils but that was the first wild post vote Tribal with Hot Chick #3 imploring Tai to use his Idol to save himself, the two douchebags being over confident when Tai did not, then Scot gets the most votes, asks Tai for his Idol, and Tai was just like, “Nope.” And just when you think it could not get any better, in Scot’s goodbye at the end of the episode, he mentions he went home with Jason’s Idol in his pocket. Awesome. So Jason goes from thinking he has a clear path to the finale with an Idol in his pocket, his buddy has another that can form a SuperIdol and a mole in the other alliance to hiss only true ally getting voted out with his Idol in his pocket. I guess we are going to get more fires getting put out next week.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

The Americans: Leaving Martha along in a house with an old man and a cane was not the smartest idea the Russians ever had. So who is going to get to her first? Probably the Russians, but do not think she will be getting that trip to Moscow. Although that would have been a fun fish out of water story had Nina still be around to be Martha’s escort.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Interesting the episode after they killed Lizzie (or so we are led to believe) with a very introspective episode with very little dialogue. And was the supposed to be Lizzie’s mother? With Red reenacting their first meeting? Or was she just a completely delusion?
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Orphan Black: We did get some more Beth but they already got to the point where she steps in front of the train, or presumably the point where she left her apartment on the way to the train station. As much time they spent in the premiere, I thought we would get a full season of flashback. Back in present day, Sarah learns she has some biotech living in her check. Creepy. Just how many of the clones have that?
You can download Orphan Black on iTunes.

Vikings: So Ragnor was gone for “years” but looking at his eldest son’s hair, and his youngest sons who are now teenagers, it seems like he has been gone at least a decade. Which begs the questions just how long has it been since the first season. It seemed like they already jumped a decade when they first aged up the eldest son who went from pre-teen to twenty-something in between seasons. It has to be at least twenty-five years. And just where was Ragnor? I wonder if we will get flashbacks of his pilgrimage when the show returns.
You can download Vikings on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 4/17/16

The Girlfriend Experience: Awe, free preview weekends, three days when I plop myself on the couch and am reminded why I do not watch many movies anymore because there are not that many being made. Except when I went to check out Starz free preview last weekend they had taken all but one movie off their On Demand channel. It is one thing to waste an entire weekend watching crappy movies On Demand, but I am not sitting around waiting for them to start (well, except Ant-Man so I am now caught up on Marvel movies… which will last less than a month).

But while Starz took off all their movies from On Demand to keep people like me from exploiting the free weekend, they did upload the entire first season of The Girlfriend Experience the day it premiere. I was not expecting much since the movie was horrible. Yet is was surprisingly compelling and actually the prostitution part was the least interesting as the lead character as an intern stumbling on some shady dealing at the law firm she is at was much more fascinating. The show kind of reminded me of last year’s best new show Mr. Robot in the show is very cold, you could sub in the shady law firm with Evil Corp. Both the leads sever mental issues but as introverted as Elliot is, Christine is that much more an extrovert. And where Elliot had friends, family, a therapist, and some drugs to keep him grounded, Christine lives in a world where being an extrovert is encouraged and even rewarded.

Unfortunately after six and a half hours on the couch Sunday, the show ended with a huge thud. I would even say it was the worst season finale of a great first season of a show since Lost (if you saw the entire first season too, insert your own, both seasons ended with the camera panning into a deep dark hole here). Really the season finale was basically everything that was wrong with the movie. I do not know where the show goes in season, but if the season finale is any indication, I was a lot less interested had they ended the season an episode earlier. Granted I probably will not see it until the nest Starz free weekend, and that is only if they do not take the season off On Demand.

House of Lies: Oh Veronica Mars, you had to know Vinnie Van Lowe would do something sleazy. But you had to know, just like every other time the group gets split up, they would end up back all together, I am just a little surprised it happened as early as the second episode.

Fear the Walking Dead: Could they have come up with a more boring season premiere? It is becoming pretty clear why the flagship show flash forward a couple months and went straight into the middle of the zombie apocalypse.
You can download Fear the Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: At the start of the season, Showtime, of all the networks, had to know they could not keep Sargent Brody on the show too long. The season had to end with him get arrested. They just could not do a cat and mouse game for multiple season. Maybe season two is the trial, but there had to be some payoff. Yet here we are at the end of the season and the biggest thing that happened in the season finale was Wendy quitting (and getting a very nice severance package). What is worse it seemed like the writers had this big plan to end the season with a big show down between Axe and Chuck (okay the Axe tearing up Axe Capital and then “going deeper” was pretty cool) but we already had that scene in the season premiere and again in the middle of the season and really all I came away from that scene is, goodness both of these people are really horrible people who deserve to lose.

Quantico: So the big twist at the end was Shelby was driving the van. Meh, it seemed pretty obvious she was doing this against her will so it was not as if the big twist was she was the one behind the phone call.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Supergirl: This is the second time the show ended an episode with Supergirl charging an antagonist. Not cool. Also not cool was having Martian Manhunter show up in the Next Time On promo even though I never thought he was actually dead. I do think he is playing possum and this was his and Alex’s plan all along to make Non think she was a mindless drone. Also not cool, Superman as a mindless drone so he cannot help his cousin. Seriously, having him off the planet presumably helping the Green Lantern Corp. (though I doubt he will ever hear that term on the show) was good enough, having him join the mindless drones way off in the distance was really cheesy. Really my big takeaway from the episode was Maxwell Lord calling the president “she.” I guess it should not be that surprising that there was not a president Lex Luther in this universe. I wonder if we will get to meet her, if it is someone from the comics, or it was some cheap, hey a woman can be president Hollywood ploy.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: I thought Penquin killing the dog was going to be the most despicable thing he did this week but feeding his step-brother and sister to his step-mother… that is some Eric Cartman level evil right there.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

The Voice: During my last Power Rankings I mentioned hoe diverse the top twenty was, but for some inexplicable reason, all four Coach’s Comeback were boring white dude and of course the bored housewives ate that up and two got voted through making half of America’s Saves white males. I looked back and in the Live Playoff seasons, white guys have made up at least half of America’s saves five of seven seasons (interesting enough, not one white guy was voted through by America in season four). I do not understand why the producers are letting bored housewives to run the show into the ground the way they did America Idol and their obsession with WGWG over there. It was pretty appropriate that The Voice hit a series low in the ratings for the results show. Count me as one of the many they have lost for the season because I have no interest in another boring white dude dominated season.

Lucifer: Well that was an interesting twist that Lucifer can only be hurt when the lady cop is around. So what exactly is her deal? We already know the Jedi mind tricks thing does not work on him and now she can hurt him. Was she sent, or blessed, by God?
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Blindspot: Oh Chrissy Seaver, your boyfriend dies going after a clue on his own, why are you doing the same? And if you are going to have Chrissy talking to people in her head, at lead make her Mr. Robot level paranoid about it.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: I had to laugh when the guy Daisy was hunting down commented on her partner’s “boy band hair.” Well that was until we actually got a good look at the guy and he looked even more like a male model. And that is pretty cheap to offer a trade and then renig. I actually want to know what his power is now.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

The Path: I have a long standing rule to never believe someone is dead until you see the body (and even then still be suspicious), but I was pretty confident that Lyla Garrity was dead at the end of the last episode. Apparently not and not only that the Kool-Aide is strong because not only did she not call the police when she went to the hospital, she went even deeper down the rabbit hole and now is taking a bigger opposition within the cult out west. As much as I enjoyed Hannibal, I thought its cancelation was probably a good thing for Hugh Dancy’s mental health, but his new role is pretty dark too. That one scene in the bedroom was almost as disturbing as anything he did on Hannibal. And I wonder if 7R is just an excuse to torture Eddie. Then after Mary’s story, I wonder if FBI is more reluctant to take her back to her father.
You can stream The Path on Hulu.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II: In the two seasons they have done this gimmick, one running theme is that everyone on the Brains tribe just completely overthinks everything. Aubry targeting the hot chick was just a really bad idea. If she is wrong, hot chick loyal, now you do not have the ability to split your votes, if you are right, the other alliance has two Idols to play with. Aubry lucked out that hot chick won Immunity, except Aubry came up with a dumber idea; vote out Debbie simply for telling hot chick the plan. Oh, and it gets dumberer, when the old dude tells Aubry how dumb the idea is and he will not vote for Debbie, Aubry tries to recruit hot chick, the person she originally wanted to get out, the person she was now targeting Debbie for because she did not trust with the vote splitting plan, to get the deciding vote. What?!?

That was just comically stupid. Now Aubry loses a loyal member of her alliance, is stuck with a potential flipper in the hot chick, the douchebag alliance still has two Idols, and now you do not have enough people to split the vote. Had Aubry just stuck with the vote splitting, best case scenario, they pick right, one of the douchebags go home; worst case scenario, both Idols get played, they chose the wrong two people to place votes on, and body builder goes home, but both Idols are at of play. Of course it seems like Aubry does not know what exactly the SuperIdol does so she may not realize that whoever they split their votes for could Voltron the two Idols after the votes are read, but still, even if that happens, both Idols are flushed and they are still down an alliance member.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

The Americans: Nina got the ax last week, will Martha be joining her soon? It does not seem like she can keep things up like they are for very much longer.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

The Blacklist: Well that was unexpected. That is not to say that it crossed my mind that Lizzie faked her death to get away from Red. It was noticeable that she said something to extent that she thought that doctor was going to be the one on call. Did she make a plot with him? It would be weird to kill Lizzie now, basically killed by the guys who were being very careful not to harm her. And he never learned who hired them. Maybe it was Lizzie who hired them as part of the decoy.
You can download The Blacklist on iTunes.

Orphan Black: There is nothing more annoying on television these days than the proliferation of hashtags blanketing the screen. Just the show’s name is annoying enough, but it is worse when they try to create new hashtags for specific scenes. Though I kind of liked when Orphan Black let me know to the effect they were going #BackToTheBeginning because it may have taken longer for me to realize they started the season with a flashback. I wonder if we will get more Beth this season, since the flashback did not go all the way up to running into Sarah, I have a feeling we may see her again.
You can downloadvOrphan Black on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/20/16

Once Upon a Time: Poor Abigail Hobbs, suffers so long on Hannibal only to get her throat slit by him and end up in the underworld. I figured she would end up being the love interest from the Hercules movie, but that movie was so unmemorable I barely even remember her. And since this half of the season is based on his movie, it is weird that it looks like Hercules only gets one episode. I guess being a demi-god means he could probably travel to the Underworld whenever he wants, so maybe he will be back to take on his uncle.
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Oh Lip, you just do not pour Jack Daniels down your throat, which was just the bane of my existence in college. I guess I am lucky to never walking up in a hospital and downing that. But maybe the dumber part of the episode was Fiona excepting a proposal by a guy using her current husband’s engagement ring. Shouldn’t it happening at your divorce proceeding be a huge red flag as to you not being marriage ready? And I cannot help but assume Frank is guying to go through that weed stash befor the commune makes enough to move to Hawaii, here is a guy who still has not learned to never, under any circumstance, get high off his own supply.

The Walking Dead: It took me a couple of minutes to recognize Alicia Witt. And it only took me a couple more minutes before realizing I do not want to see evil Alicia Witt. At least she died quickly, well after having her face eaten off. Ouch.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: At the beginning of the episode I thought, oh wow, having the janitor as a mole is kind of brilliant, he can go through trash, is usually alone after hours to do other snooping. That may actually be better than blackmailing the lesbian. Who would suspect the janitor? But I turns out the attorney’s mole is actually a double agent and Axe knows everything. Though how does this even end good for the mole / double agent? Does Axe have a retirement plan for him where he lives on the beach of a country without an extradition tready? There is the old saying that some people play checkers against people playing chess, Axe may be playing three dimensional chess while Rhoades is just playing regular chess.

Quantico: Stupid promo monkey, last week when they said someone was going to die this week, I figured there is no way they would kill of the person with a bomb strapped to their waist, but that is exactly who they killed (granted not with that bomb). Also my theory about death no meaning much on the show since the actors would still be in flashbacks became moot because that chick got sent packing in the flashbacks too.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Supergirl: Awe, red kryptonite, always good to spruce things up. I did like how they explained it as Maxwell Lord failing to recreate the regular kind. It also explains why Jimmy would not instantly know what was going on because Superman would have never been exposed before. Apparently Superman was too busy to stop his cousin from destroying her city so instead Martian Manhunter had to expose himself. Though that still does not explain why they did not have any green kryptonite to weaken her first so he did not have to out himself as an alien too, and in the process go, oh yeah, the guy whose body I took over is dead. Still I give it one episode before a threat so great pops up that they need to release him to help Supergirl in the fight.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: Holy Lori Petty sighting! And still sporting her Tank Girl haircut about a quarter of a century later. Interesting that the show has younger versions of all the Batman buddies and villains and yet we get what I assume is a older Harley Quinn surrogate. But of course since she is in the movies, we will likely never get an actual character named Harley Quinn on the show. That would have been a lot more interesting than the Silver St. Cloud we got instead.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Lucifer: Holy Herc back in a wheelchair sighting! A couple episodes back I suggested what this show needed was a serialized component, except I was hoping for something more supernatural, not a cop corruption case. And of course the separated husband shot the other cop, it is really the only possible suspect. Maybe this will end up having a supernatural component because Lucifer did save the guy. Does he know that he was shot by the husband and that is why he saved him? But if so, why not tell lady cop her husband is corrupt.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Blindspot: Oh wow, a Chrissy Seaver training montage, get that girl in the field. But I thought for sure the mole was going to end up being Sutter ex-girlfriend. Oh well.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Ooo, Talbert was the mole, not a good way to start off that relationship. But I missed part of the episode because my local ABC station broke into the show for John Kasich’s victory speech as if anyone who actually wanted to hear it was not all ready watching CNN or another 24-hour cable channel. So after a minute of him not actually saying anything (Apparently there was a protester yet the cameraman could not find him) I flipped over to The Voice until it went to a commercial. So I switch back to ABC and they were airing commercials already. So I flipped to CNN and Kasich was still talking. Seriously, if you are going to break into a show just show the whole speech at that point. So I missed about five minute of the show. I went to Hulu the next day but forgot ABC has a stupid eight day waiting period as if they do not want people to ever get caught up. I am certainly not watching it On Demand if I cannot skip to the part I missed, so hopefully nothing important happened during those five minutes.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Wait, let me get this straight, CeCe is not Alison’s sister, but her cousin, that her parents adopted (and then ignored even existed) whose mother is Mrs. Dilarentas twin (and apparently has the same initials A.D.), is just as tech savy as her daughter, and is in cahoots with CeCe’s doctor who married Alison as part of some plan that involves an extremely lifelike Wilden mask. Alrighty. And of course Hanna’s plan to admit she was the killer turned out horribly.
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty: After Lizzie got the boot two weeks ago, I came to the realization that I do not particularly like anyone this season besides the hot chick alliance. And as if the show was trolling me (and every red-blooded American straight dude watching), when they split the tribes into two, the hot chick alliance somehow ended up on three different beaches. Making things worse, the third hot chick would replace the person who gets voted out waking it is both tribes best interest to get rid of a Beauty to make sure they do not become a majority on their tribe. What an amazing turnabout because had Caleb had not been pulled from the game, and assuming the tribe split when the same way with Caleb and Hot Chick #3 go to opposite tribes, the Beauty tribe goes from a majority in both tribes to being outnumbered or even in the tribes.

What is amazing is the actually had a way to make lemonade out of lemons because Gay Asian had an Idol, if he uses it correctly, can turn hiss tribe from a Brains dominated tribe into a Beauty controlled one. Except Gay Asian and Scot showed exactly why they did not start on the Brains tribe because they both made extremely dumb strategic moves. Instead of using the Idol, giving his tribe a Beauty majority, now Gay Asian is exactly where he was when the tribes swapped, one less Beauty than Brain with untrustable Scot in the middle. So he may very have to use that Idol next week except now when someone gets voted out, there is not another Beauty coming to help you out. I fully understand wanting to save an Idol for yourself, but the one time you do give an Idol to someone else is to get the numbers on your side. And what is even worse now for Gay Asian is that now not only does he not have the numbers, everyone knows he has an Idol which puts him in a horrible position in the game.

As for Scot, telling Gay Asian not to play the Idol was a bad strategic move too. So what if he now knows where two Idols are? Does he really think that if he is voted out, Gay Asian and Bounty Hunter are really going to come together like Voltron to save him? Do you know what is better than knowing where two Idols are? Having your own Idol. And if Gay Asian plays his Idol, there will be a new one in play the very next day that you can go out and find for yourself (and there is another reason Gay Asian should have played his, he already found one Idol, go and replace it after you play one like Kelley Wentworth last season). You can easily convince Bounty Hunter to enter a pact to save each other, than to get two people to give up their Idols for basically nothing.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty on iTunes.

The Americans: It took the daughter three seasons to find out her parents were Russians, so I guess it should not be surprising nothing happens with that information except tell her minister who I guess is bound by some client confidentiality agreement or something. Kind of a run of the mill premiere as I guess these chemical weapons will be this season’s theme. How disappointing Stan did not break it while assaulting Philip.
You can download The Americans on iTunes.

Nashville: What a boring wedding. No deaths, no crashers. Just Avery annoyingly getting asked where Juliette was every two minutes. At least let Layla go HAM after learning Jeff did not kill himself and Juliette was just covering it up so she did not look bad. Meh.
You can download Nashville on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/13/16

Once Upon a Time: I kind of half joked when Emma said they were going to the Underworld that Hades from Hercules better show up. Then at the end of the episode the king of the Underworld’s hair turned flame blue and it turned out I was right. Man, they are really scrapping the bottom of the Disney barrel on this one. Are they going to Notre Dame next?
You can download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Shameless: Oh Frank, everyone knows the number one rule of drug trafficking is never get high off your own supply. Of course that was going to end badly. Just like Debbie and her pregnant fetish guy. I saw that coming as soon as he asked for her help. Yet that was not even the most shameless moment of the episode. When Lip was confronted by Queenie, I thought, oh no, Lip is going to have sex with his… um; father’s baby momma I guess is what you would call it. And they actually kind of did it depending, not to get all Bill Clinton, on how you describe sex. Physically helping someone to, um, finish the job, kind of constitutes sex. But going by the Bill Clinton definition it was not.

The Walking Dead: So everyone is hooking up now, which means there is going to be a lot of deaths coming up soon. Since she is captured, could Carol be next? I am hard pressed to think they would kill off a pregnant lady, but it seemed apropos that whoever has the two got introduced pretty much the same way Glen was introduced on the show. I thought Abraham was getting the he is about to die edit last week but this week he just dumped Rosita presumably so he can shack up with Sasha instead. Sure I would not kick Sasha out of bed, but Rosita has to be the most attractive chick you are going to find during a zombie apocalypse. But I guess mullet guy has a chance now.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Billions: You know someone is really mad when they get out of a pool and go straight to their car, no shirt, no shoes, not even toweling off, to go punch someone. But c’mon Axe, you have to at least make the kids spend the night at camp before letting them give up. It may be interesting to watch those brats suffer if everything is taken away when Axe goes to prison. Actually let’s not take the Brody mistake of keeping the family on the show too long for this show too.

Quantico: So someone is going to die next week. Except the gay dude died in the Winter finale and him being around in the flashbacks kind of lessens the impact of the death. Since she has a bomb strapped to her, she would be the obvious choice, which means she is not dying or that would be the worst promo monkey job of all time. Instead I think it is going to be one of the twins which would have even less of an impact because not only would they still be in flashbacks but there would still be one twin still alive.
You can download Quantico on iTunes.

Gotham: We have known Hugo Strange has been collecting “dead” people since the Winter finale when we saw Galivan being wheeled and we got to see him in some sort of tank this week. Behind him was three more tanks, the next two with their backs t us and the next facing towards us. I did not recognize that last guy and it is hard to identify someone by the back of their head but that second guy did have red hair so Jerome instantly came to mind. There was a very Fish Mooney looking figure during the Winter finale. So the question is when do these zombies get reanimated? Was the Mr. Freeze serum the final ingredient Hugo needs?
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

The Voice: The sad sack stories have been the worst part of the show (well the proliferation of boring white dudes over the past four seasons may actually be worse) but my goodness, do we really need to sit through a dude talking about he kept on hitting decline on his phone right before his dad killed himself? That was just really too rough. And of course it gets worse because no one bothered to turn their chair which seems to happen to some of the people with the saddest stories as if the producers bring them on only for their story knowing they probably will not turn a chair.

Every season I do a bi where I mention all the artists I am surprised anyone covered on the show because the Blind Auditions is where the people are most adventurous and I was surprised that dude sang an Incubus song. And now that I think about, maybe half of those people end up not getting a chair turned. Look at the guy who closed out the week, he auditions last season with a great Cameo song, does not get a chair to turn. Does an overdone song this time and is on a team.

Oh, and holy Ellie Lawrence sighting! Talk about letting people come back, I know they do not let people who get a chair to turn to try out again but really anyone screwed royalty deserves to come back and be on a team with a real coach. Although if they brought Ellie back, they would also have to change the rules to ban anyone who voted for Braiden Sunshine from ever voting again, which they should do anyway. And like the first week, I was pretty meh on the talent this season. Pharrell picked up another indie chick to add to the three he pick up last week, but Christina actually nabbed the best indie chick of the season (so far) with Kristen Marie.


Apparently The Voice is doing that stupid scheduling where Monday’s show will half Blind Auditions, half Battle Round, so I will release my Blind Audition Power Ranking Tuesday evening even though two people will probably already had been sent home (with the third loser being stolen). During the Best of the Blind Auditions special (so none of the five singers yet to be put on a team qualify as Best; though three of the five the only other time they had this format went on to the Live Playoffs so do not completely write them off; sure none of those three got saved by the public vote in the Live Playoffs, but anyway) they did give away a couple of the Battle pairing, I am going to make my predictions now (the person I think is going to win is listed first):

Team Blake
Mary Sarah vs. Justin Whisnant
Paxton Ingrim vs. Brittany Lawrence
Brittany Kennell vs. Trey O’Dell

Team Pharrell
Brian Nhira vs. Abby Celso
Nick Hagelin vs. Jessica Crosbie
Emily Keener vs. Johnathan Bach
Hannah Huston vs. Maya Smith

Team Adam
Natalie Yacovazzi vs. Nate Butler
Laith Al-Saadi vs Matt Tedder

Team Christina
Alison Porter vs. Lacey Mandingo
Tamar Davis vs. Shalyah Fearing
Malik Heard vs. Bryan Bautista

My first takeaway from the pairing is that Pharrell had four previews (and he is the only one who still has two spots left on his team compared to one for everyone else) while Adam only two previews, one of which was between two guy I kind of thought may have been fodder (even though I do like Laith). Actually the other pairing is between two people I would be a bit surprised if either made the Live Shows too. Last spring Pharrell had five of his six Battles result in a Steal and I wonder if that is going to happen again. If my predictions are right I could see someone stealing Abby and Maya who got good edits so far. And predicting Steals do seem to be completely random, but Pharrell Stealing Shalyah. Has he ever not Stolen a young soul singer? There also seems to be more co-ed battles than usual. I wonder if this is a way to consciously limit the number of boring whit dudes make the Live Shows this year after six of the eight singers America saved in the Playoffs last season were boring white dudes (out of a possible seven). My other takeaway from the previews was how much time they spent on only one of the Battle pairing which made some of these predictions really easy (sorry Maya and Lacy). We get it producers you really, really want Alison to win so a female singer and coach will win this season. Except the more you push, the more the bored housewives are going to rebel and have yet another boring white dude win for the fifth straight season.

Lucifer: Two take always from this episode; Lucifer’s brother calls him Lucy. And if the brother is now the gatekeeper to Hades, just how many people are escaping during his many trips to Erth to try to convince his brother to come back home? And when does Lucifer start hunting down those souls because that show would be much more interesting than this one.
You can download Lucifer on iTunes.

Blindspot: Holy Smash Williams sighting! But the bigger shock was Kurt’s sister and Edgar… who knew? Not that they were hooking up but that character’s name was Edgar, I had to look it up and had no clue what his name was. Oh yeah, then there was Jane Doe learning she died.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: So what was with the three months from now opener? Civil War does come out in May and the last Captain America movie is really the only time something in the movie actually had much of an effect on the show. But it is probably just a teaser for the season finale. But then again, three months is June and early May is when shows tend to wrap up for the year.
You can download Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: The Liars have had some epically dumb ideas over the years, but Hannah admitting she killed CeCe. So what happens when A gets revenge or possibly calls the police?
You can download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty: So we had our first medical leave of the season (second because apparently Lizzie had to be flown back to America right after being voted out to deal with some staph infections). Just last week I mentioned how even when the person who is getting voted out they always plant a seed for someone else, this is the first time I remember them not even put up a red herring, and went straight to Tribal Council and did not even show Blondie scrambling. Shame the merge came a week too late for her because she could have teamed up with the hot chick alliance. Same for Lizzie. Should be interesting to she how it plays out, if anyone find the Brains Hidden Immunity Idol, or if they are going to put more Idols into play in hopes that a Super Idol gets played.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 3/6/16

The Oscars: I have not watched the Oscars since… well, the last time Chris Rock hosted, and again that is the only reason I turned in because I think Ex-Machina was the only nominated movie I saw last year (Straight Outta Compton sits unopened on my desk for the past month; and though I have not seen it, and I do not want to be the last person to go on a race inspired rant, but Ice Cube’s Jheri curl got robbed for Best Hair and Makeup). Okay, so I only watched the first half hour before flipping over to The Walking Dead (I did flip back during the commercials, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the monologue. Obviously Rock had to bring up the lack of diversity in the major categories, but did the topic really have to take up the entire monologue (and from what I heard, but of his bits after that)? Sure it was funny but how about actually talking about this year’s movies, even if I had not seen any? The only none-race joke I heard from the parts I heard from Rock was saying Carol was the third best girl on girl flick he saw last year. Oh well, these are the reasons why I skip the Oscars anyway. It was nice to see Brie Larson (Envy Adams!) win an award as I have supported her going all the way back to her cheesy Avril Lavinge knock-off days. Seriously, go to my list of The 100 Best Songs of 2005, and scroll down to #89.


The Walking Dead: So Abraham is going to die soon. If not those were some weird scenes with him, I am a little surprised he did not die this week. And again I show I would be too smart for the show because my first thought about the Hilltop community was, why don’t they just move in together? A lot of people died in that last zombie attack so there has to be open housing in Alexandra, the Hilltop need better protection than spears and Alexandra needs food. But of course that would be too obvious and neither trust each other anyway. Instead they are going to go kamikaze on some evil warlord camp.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Supergirl: Did they bring in Smallville’s Supergirl to make the current incarnation look like a much better actress in comparison? The Smallville version looks more the part, more than this version, but goodness she is not very good actor.
Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: B.D. Wong is having quite the evil moment right now. He looks to be part of some Illuminate-type group in Mr. Robot and now he shows up as Hugo Strange. But really, overall kind of a meh episode for a show returning from a big break. But then again I never really card much for Mr. Freeze.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

The Voice: Big changes on the show!!! Okay, they moved the family waiting room to the side of the stage. Has The Voice had to downsize? They did lose their big phone sponsor last season whereas the coaches’ salaries only grow every season. And come to think of it, I do not remember them mentioning their coffee sponsor either. Though watched on Hulu and every ad was promoting Jordan Smith and some unnamed credit card so they do have some money coming in. The bigger news was how lackluster the first week was I kind of like Caity Peters but I was really bored for the first four hour. But I did go back and six of my seven favorite Blind Auditions were not in the first week, so hopefully they are saving some gems for next week.


Blindspot: Maybe it is the election year and I am really tuned into government spending, but sending a team to a remote island in the Mediterranean because of tattoos does not seem like money well spent even if it did turn out to uncover a lost plane. But the more absurd part of the show was having the PC guy and his mustache being a high ranking official within the FBI. Granted President Trump may very well give the PC guy that position when he is elected.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes.

The Muppets: Jack White Jack White being the funniest part of the whole season probably sums up the season as a whole.
You can download The Muppets on iTunes.

Marvel’s Agent Carter: They made a really bad calculation in not having Howard Stark around full time because he is always good time, especially when he wrapped himself around Peggy to help her hold the hose. Bu overall this season just did not live up to last season because Whitney Frost just did not turn out to be much of an antagonist. Dottie was a much better foil last season.
You can download Marvel's Agent Carter on iTunes.

Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty: When the Brains lost, I thought great, Cat Lady is the obvious pick, she lost the challenge and she is annoying. Except when they got back to camp, no one brought up her name. Instead the broke down into three pairs, the “hot” pare targeted the ice cream dude for no reason, the “old” pair” wanted to get rid of Lizzie because she was a threat, and the “weird” pair wanted the doctor gone because he is pompous with the old pair getting their way. Boooo. Lizzie was easily my favorite this season and with her gone I am just now realizing just how unlikeable this cast is. Aside from the annoying cat lady and the pompous doctor, the two Brawn dudes left are douchebags, the gay Asian is also annoying, and I would probably also find Blondie annoying if I did not feel bad for her being stuck with the two douchbags kind of like Shirin two seasons ago. And that is three poorly casts of new contestants in a row if you throw in the first Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty which had three of maybe the ten most unlikeable people in the history of the show in Tony, Kass, and Trish. It may be time to find a new casting agent. Really the only people worth rooting for this season are the hot chick alliance which will probably get eliminated as soon as the tribe swap happens.

Oh yeah, and we got a big twist this season in the Super Idol! Now anyone who has two Idols in their pocket can play that AFTER the votes had been read. Seems reasonable because if you have multiple Idols that should help you more. But how often has that ever happened, in twenty two seasons that they have had Hidden Immunity Idols, I only remember three times that it has happened: James (who got booted with both in his pocket and really needed that new twist), Parviti (who pulled out the greatest move in Survivor history), and Malcolm (who pulled off the worst as his douchebag alliance went home in consecutive weeks after that). Then my buddy Doug pointed out that both Tony and Jeremy have done it more recently. Still that is about once every four seasons average. It will be interesting if this twist will cause more people share Idols instead of keeping them to themselves like most people have done in recent season, or if it will never even be utilized.
You can download Survivor: Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty II on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 11/28/15

Homeland: So we finally learned why Allison is in bed with the Russians: blackmail for literally being in bed with her informant who she was going to run away with before he set her up. But I do wonder if Allison knew if the Acrobat was still alive or not . He did end up in the vacation destination Allison talked about (what a horrible screen saver, all that is going to do is burn that image into the screen, it should have at least rotated, and what douchebag these days still uses a screen saver instead of the auto screen shut off; it is just a waste in electricity dude). But if Allison knows that Carrie knows the Acrobat is still alive, you let the assassin to kill her because Carrie can figure out everything.

The Walking Dead: The show did not fool me when it looked like Glen was getting his guts pulled out the last time we saw him on screen. Then they pulled the actor's name from the credit making me think, oh wow, he may actually be dead, but it ended up being just a huge troll move because it was the other dude who fell on top of him and it was his guts being pulled out and Glen actually was able to pull himself under the trash bin and the and the hoard of zombies conveniently dispersed even though they knew he was under there and started clawing at him. After this obvious conclusion, I was hoping the writers actually pulled a bigger troll move and at the ended the episode with a zombie coming out of nowhere to bite him. Maybe they are saving that for the mid-season finale.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Affair: I am starting to wonder just what is the timeline in the future. This whole time I was thinking it was maybe five years in the future but I am beginning to think the future is right around the corner. Is the baby currently gestating in Allison's belly the one that may or may not be Scotty's? If so, does that mean the two hooked up while Allison was in her hippy retreat phase? Could Cole's wedding be the season finale?I kind of wish the show would spend more time in the future because that is becoming much more interesting. Or least give annoying daughter her own act.

Into the Badlands: The show looked stylish and there was not much else to watch this week so I thought I would give it a try. Yeah the show looked cool and the fight scenes are fun, but there is so really bad writing on this show. The plot seems to just be an amalgamation of every post apocalyptic warlord run future movie ever made. And for a show entitled Into the Badlands, there are a lot of characters talking about leaving the Badlands.
You can download Into the Badlands on iTunes.

Supergirl: Maxwell Lord is kind of a huge douchebag. Not only does he set up all those tests for Supergirl, he actually comes clean about it. Even Bond villains do not tell James their evil plan until after they think he is about to die. And I got this creepy vibe that Lord is going to hook up with Supergirl's sister at some point.
You can download Supergirl on iTunes.

Gotham: The teenagers have been the weak link for a season and a half now thanks to some bad writing and even worse acting but that Bruce doublecross on Silver was great. When you get the dude from Sons of Anarchy to play a bad guy I completely bought that he would rough up a bunch of kids. Then you have a great scene between Alfred and Tigress, the stilettos on the elevator roof was a great shot. But it was obvious that Galivan would get off but the explanation was silly with the mayor changing his story, was that the plan all along or did Galivan threaten him from inside the prison? Fall finale (ugg) next week with James teaming up with Penguin to find Bruce and Galivan. But let me predict that it is Silver turning on her uncle that frees the Son of Gotham.
You can download Gotham on iTunes.

Blindspot: The promo two weeks ago promised someone would die before the Fall Finale (ugg) and I just assumed that was Chrissy Seaver's boyfriend which was kind of cheap for that tease. Except we got a legitimate shocking death this week when tree tattoo guy killed CIA guy who I thought was going to be a big bad that looms on the show. Then tree tattoo guy shows Lady Siff of Lady Siff saying everything is going as planned and she did this to herself. What!?! So if I am understanding it correctly, she basically Trojan Horsed herself into the FBI because it is corrupt and she needs to fix it from the inside. Okay, not the dumbest reveal in television history.
You can download Blindspot on iTunes..

Survivor: Second Chances: What a range of emotions it may have been good to have a double episode on Thanksgiving Eve. The first hour ended with a low as Jeremy stupidly wasted an Idol on Stephan (which looks even more stupid after what happened in the second hour) leaving Ciera with the most votes that counted. And what I thought that happened ended up happening with Stephan being targeted at the next Tribal Council and Jeremy went from an alliance with two Idols and an Extra Vote to just one Idol and your closest alliance member heading to Pondarosa. And why are you saving someone who does not even trust you enough to tell you what his advantage was. Of course Ciera deserves some blame because it was stupid to express her plan to out Stephan in ear shot of Jeremy anyway. You float the idea of Stephan being a huge threat with his advantage in the group and then sway people in smaller groups.

But as dreadful as the first episode turned out, the second Tribal Council goes in the Pantheon. Seriously, what was Stephan doing? Again the split vote was unnecessary and ultimately sent him home. Why are you fearing Abi Maria has an Idol? This is a person who openly admitted to having an Idol the last time she played simply because Probsts asked if anyone else wanted to share that they have an Idol mostly in a joking way. If you wanted to know if Abi Maria had an Idol, probably all you had to do was ask. And this led to a weird vote. When Stephan stole Joe's vote I thought, well Joe is a goner. Except Stephan instead votes for Abi Maria and they uses Joe's vote to vote for Joe (which technically should not count because Survivor rules state you cannot vote for yourself, not that it ended up mattering). So I thinking if Stephan is confidant enough to split, he must had pulled Tasha and Spencer back into the fold but when that last vote was cast, it was Stephan who when home. What a great Tribal.
You can download Survivor: Second Chance on iTunes.