Quote of the Week: What is the rate of exchange on the life of a bird because if equal to or greater than mine I gotta get back to my car. (Emerson, Pushing Daisies)
Song of the Week: Living in America - James Brown (Everybody Hates Chris)
Big News of the Week: Subscribe to My Comments: I could complain on how bad the Blogger comment system is but you get what you pay for so it is hard to complain about something that is free. But this week Blogger introduced a cool new function where you can subscribe to the comments where any further comments will be e-mailed to you (keep in mind it is e-mailed to whatever address your Google account is for). I was never sure what the protocol was for replying to comments, usually I reply in the comment section and by e-mail if I have it, but from now on I will assume that if you have left a comment you have subscribed to that comment if you wanted a response. Then you can always come back and respond to my response or other people’s comments and so on and so on. So feel free to try that out sometime soon, even on this post if you see fit.
Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:
Chuck: Another episode ruined by too much Morgan. They really need to leave the comedy to Captain Awesome and Jayne because Morgan just ends up being more annoying than funny. Even all the other Buy More employees are more entertaining than him. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.
How I Met Your Mother: Every once in a while something takes you out of a show early to the point that you can’t enjoy the rest of it, and the show totally ripping of the classic Just a Friend really irked me that I could never get into the show this week. C’mon, if you are going to call a girl Blah Blah, you at the very least mention she had 9/10 pants and a very big bra. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.
The Big Bang Theory: Loved the bit of the whole week was Sheldon after finding the scarf on the doorknob from getting the Token hot Chick to figure out what the symbolism was, including how he was like twelve when he was in college, all the way to him squirming on the couch until morning. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download or The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Heroes: Leave it up to Heroes to set the bar so low they could step over it only to still find a way to limbo over it. Sure I want Veronica Mars to still be on the air, but there really was no reason to write Elle to be Ronnie but evil complete with an inner dialogue. Of course without a narration Elle had to do hers out loud. But the biggest crime was how little screen time Bell got. About ninety percent of it was already show in the promo from last week. And I could care less who Elle’s dad is unless of course it turns out to be Enrico Colantoni. But then again I’m not sure I could stand to hear another Mars alum recite horrible dialogue. With that aside, don’t forget to check out Oddsmaker: Who Is Under the Hoodie to bet on who is killing The Company members. I guess I can scratch off my far fetched Jessica and Kristen Bell ideas. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Journeyman: By far this was the strongest story of the week with the Vietnam vet hijacking a plane to help get a family that nursed him back to health out of Cambodia. Although back in the present, I didn’t care for the continuation of the gun in the gala last week. And unfortunately it looks like that may continue again with the guy still being in the hospital. If I were a betting man I would put money on the dude in the hospital being part of Dan’s journey sometime soon. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com. You can also download Journeyman on iTunes.
Pushing Daisies: I was a little disappointed at first when Olive passed up the chance to out Chuck this week but after thinking about it, it was the better decision not to yet because Olive hanging out with the aunts is becoming yet another great part of the show proving all the people that thought Olive was the weak part of the show wrong. But the best part of the show is it is the only procedural where I cannot guess the outcome with good percentage because all the cases are so out there and I can just sit back and enjoy the show without over thinking every clue because I know there is no way I am gong to guess correctly. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Bionic Woman: I didn’t give up the show completely but was more reading with the TV on, that is until Jamie started to speak with a British accent, which instantly turned her into uber-hot. I like how the tech dude that reminds me of a nerdier version of Herc from Friday Night Lights, who is the best part of the show, ok the only good part of the show, called her out for using the accent when she didn’t need to. I’m guessing this was an attempt of the show to be tongue in cheek (and failing) considering the actress is actually British. This begs the question with all the fake Americans on television these days where are the real British characters? I don’t think there has been one since a pre-fame Sienna Miller on Keen Eddie. Way to go with that one Fox. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
My Name Is Earl: There was nothing funnier on television this week than the “Enjoy Yourself: You Earned It” poster with the picture of Coach on it on the door of the conjugal visit room. The least funny on television this week was anything else involving Michael Rappaport. Can he just get shived already? Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download My Name Is Earl on iTunes.
Survivor: Wow, this has to be the most inept group of Survivors ever. Between the inability of Denise to beat James and Frosti finding out about the immunity idol I thought Todd’s head was going to explode because he seems like the only one there with a half a brain cell. And it was a little shady after saying last week he would never throw a challenge that he was quick to do so this week. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.
Smallville: There is something to say about The Big Bang Theory when all I could think about when Lana was thrown off the building was Sheldon’s diatribe a couple weeks ago about the scientific inaccuracy of Superman catching Lois Lane.
Friday Night Lights: I really couldn’t get into the episode this week because my sister paid me Friday and brought her Devil Dogg (no seriously, it was born on 6/6/06) and since she just finished season one and hasn’t started season two yet I had to spend too much time explaining what has happened over the past couple episodes so I really need to rewatch this episode to fully enjoy it. One thing that I did catch and really appreciated was when the Tennessee coach came over to the Taylor’s to confront Coach Taylor foe being butch league. Ever since it was hinted that Taylor was coming back to Dillon I knew it would end up being shady to how he got back to being coach of the Panthers and I am glad that the writers had the piece of mind to point that out. Although the old coach saying they may meet again gives me a weird feeling they may meet in the playoffs ala Voodoo last year and that may be a little cheesy. But as much problems I had with this episode, next week’s promo looks real good (see below). Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
Promo of the Week:
Next Week’s Pick: Nip/Tuck, Tuesday at 10:00 on FX: I am going to go into more detail on this show tomorrow when I preview the first two episodes of the new season.
Quote of the Week: I was with her a year ago. You figure for her that was like two hundred showers ago. You ask yourself: Is two hundred enough? (Barney, How I Met Your Mother)
Song of the Week: Where I Stood - Missy Higgins (Smallville)
Big News of the Week: Kristen Bell Week: After four episodes of being bored out my mind enough to switch over to I Love New York to see if Midget Mac was still around, this week we finally get our first look at Kristen Bell on Heroes. Unfortunately it looks like from the promo that Kristen will be acting opposite of the worst actor of our time, the Absorbing Guy. But she was able to come away from Pulse unscaved so hopefully he doesn’t rub off on her. And if that weren’t enough of Ms. Bell, Tuesday also sees the release of the third season of Veronica Mars on DVD (see right) which features the FBI pitch that was unfortunately not picked up by The CW and looking at the ratings of the shows it picked up instead, that decision is looking even worse than before.
On a non-Kristen Bell note, I have made it known my dislike for those TV writers who write under the guise of the “gossip” label because they hide behind “sources” that tend to be wrong when citing these “sources.” But I was trolling a Friday Night Lights site recently to see a gossiper that will go nameless who recently wrote, “According to an informant, the Peacock recently sent out a reader survey and one of the questions was, ‘Would you be more likely to watch Friday Night Lights if it followed Heroes on Monday?’” Informant? I totally reported this two weeks ago (See 57 Channels vol. II). So not only these people have shady “sources” they have no problem stealing news without credit. You should leave that to the bloggers. On a brighter not, I have a new segment that is inspired by showing pictures to give the ladies out there for a Halloween costume which is pretty self explanatory.
Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:
Chuck: Can anyone explain to me why a DEA agent would have a eastern European accent? Seriously, couldn’t just saved this actress for the inevitable KGB episode? I know nothing can be perfect, but there seems to be something that really bugs me every week with this show. But my biggest problem this week was way too much Morgan. They really need to kill him off and promote Captain Awesome to series regular. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.
Everybody Hates Chris: Holy Dwayne Wayne sighting! I wonder if Eurkle is sitting at home watching the parade of forgotten black actors and wondering when he is going to get a call.
The Big Bang Theory: After the sub par outing last week with little Sheldon, the show gets back on track with a Sheldon-centric episode. I’m not sold on the Token Hot Chick as a character but the more along time with Sheldon, like how they went shopping this week, and that could turn her around. The only problem I had is that they tried a little too hard to make his mom into your token hillbilly with a kid nothing like her. That is not to say I wouldn’t mind seeing more of Laurie Metcalf on the shoe. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download or The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Heroes: So last season they hyped this big bad even badder than Syler and it turned out to be Hearing Guy’s Dad? Seriously? We are supposed to believe and old balding fat dude is this completely evil. Yeah if this were a political show I could believe that, but as a superhero show I want something a little creepier than someone who looks like my high school science teacher. Speaking of Syler, we leave him last week in the middle of the jungle only to end up road side at the beginning of the next episode. Why even bother putting him in the middle of nowhere in the first place.
We get a new hero this week with Does Things from TV Girl. I would have liked her more if they didn’t sell her early with the tomato scene and had her first heroic scene being the wresting move. But anyways. This is usually where whine about how boring the episode was and I ask when Kristen Bell is showing up, but we all know when now. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Journeyman: Did Dan really start off the episode with an, "Oh boy"? And that may be my biggest problem with the show is that it takes itself too seriously except for a line or two per episode. They really need to work in an absurd storyline soon where Dan follows a carnie or maybe an animal. Just a whole episode of comic relief. But we did get a big twist this week where the science guy was able to call Dan in the past. I think it is easy to assume that the science guy’s association with Dan’s dad will have a major impact on the show. Although I’m not sure how Olivia would fit into all of this. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com. You can also download Journeyman on iTunes.
Pushing Daisies: I am not really fond of the show going back and revisiting the first case like this. IT may have been better if they did back to back episode or a two hour premiere, but it seems like a step back. And devoting the first segment of every show to retell Ned’s power has gotten old real quick. They really don’t need to dumb down the show that much, the “previously on” has done a decent enough job explaining to newcomers. But is a little hard to be too disappointing when the show also featured a hillbilly Chinese dude fighting Ned, the wannabe Jedi. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Bionic Woman: Yeah, I think I am done with the show. And this past episode added confusion to the unlikable characters and boring writing. Like what happened to the doctor and why was the one dude so eager to kill him? How could they not have restraints strong enough for the Bionic Woman? They know how strong she is. I may catch it every once and a while to see if it ever reaches its potential, but it is officially off my must see TV list. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
My Name Is Earl: To all the kids out there, this past episode is the very reason you should stay off drugs. That’s pretty much all I have to say about this episode. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download My Name Is Earl on iTunes.
Survivor: Can someone explain to me how the contestants got their bathing suits? Did I miss something? They made a big deal about living with no possessions the first week only to give them running shoes that episode and now they all have bathing suits. Cheap. And that wasn’t even the worst part about the episode with the two girls throwing the challenge. Now I am not one to argue their strategic element of doing so, but you can’t do it so blatantly then giggle about it. Now there is no way either of those two win. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.
Friday Night Lights: This is the tale of two episodes. The scenes with Riggins and Lyla, Landry and Tyra, Matt trying to get the nurse to do his laundry, and Coach Taylor’s passive aggressive chat with Buddy on the phone were classic Friday Night Lights. But there were some eye rolling moments with Julie in the car, Matt tackling Smash after the game, and of course bringing up the murder again. Although from the promo, it looks like next week will be the make or break storyline for the murder so I will hold off final judgment of that until at least then. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
I would also like to mention that the kind people over at FX were nice enough to hook me up with the first two episodes of Nip/Tuck and I’ve watch the first one so far and there is a show inside the show staring Bradley Cooper and Paula Marshall, Hearts and Scalpels, that is extremely hilarious, although the explicate surgery scene reminded me why I didn’t start watching the show in the first place (not too mention the gratuitous male nudity I could have done without). I’ll have a more in-depth post on the show closer to the season premiere October 30.
Promo of the Week: Interesting that NBC would prominently feature Kristen Bell in the Heroes promo this week. Apparently they know something that The CW could never figure out. Well I guess that is an obvious statement for many other reasons that just the use of Bell.
Next Week’s Pick: Saving a Species, Friday at 9:00 on the Animal Planet: Why watch this Gorillas on the Brink documentary? Two words: Natalie Portman. Oh, and the whole bring a light to the endangered species of mountain gorillas is a worthy cause. The episode follows Portman along with Jack Hanna as they visit Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park.
Quote of the Week: Don’t tell me to become a man alright because if that is your definition of a man that’s extremely sad. (Landry, Friday Night Lights)
Song of the Week: Hopefully Devoted to You - Olivia Newton John (as sung by Olive, Pushing Daisies)
Big News of the Week: Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton on The 9: A couple months ago I highlighted my favorite video blog The 9 (see Now Get Back to Work) and who popped yesterday but none other that Coach and Mrs. Taylor. Chandler dropped what could possibly be a huge spoiler (especially if you put together what he said with next week’s promo) for the season so be warned. Also why you are there, take note at the bottom right of the page where you can submit your favorite things you find on the internet *cough* the 9th Green *cough*.
And since I have gotten a couple questions about it, the song that plays during the promos this season is Believe by The Bravery. It was also brought to my attention that you can buy a Crucifictorious in the NBC Store. So if you were ever wanting to know what to give a random dude whose stuff you read on the internet for Christmas, there you go (assuming a new iPod is too much to ask for). Unfortunately, even though you can buy a Tim Riggins one, Landry’s 85 jersey isn’t available for purchase.
Chuck: We get our first listen to the show’s theme song and it Short Skirt/Long Jacket. Seriously? That is the best they could come up with. Yeah I like the song and the accompanying videos were brilliant, but as a theme song to a spy show?
But anyways. At least the Token Hot Chick is still working at Weiner King and Jayne’s lurking thought the episode was frakking hilarious, though not as hilarious as Captain Awesome teaching Chuck the tango and for no apparent reason doing so in just his boxers. The spy part of the episode was a little shaky though, it was stressed that there were no known pictures of the arms dealer yet no one questioned how Chuck was able to ID him in the bathroom? That just bugged me. And I was extremely disappointed that Chuck was back to the industry standard ringtone. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.
How I Met Your Mother: Way too many gapping holes in the episode. Seriously, it never donned on Robin that instead of shaving her legs in the restaurant bathroom with butter that she should hade just went home with him and used his shaving cream? Then, even though she had been in his bedroom once before and watched him go into his bedroom, Winnie Cooper and her sorority sister went into the other bedroom to full around? Then to top things off we don’t even find out if Ted sealed the deal. Pretty lame. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.
Everybody Hates Chris: I’m not sure if anyone else caught it, but the funniest part of the episode was when Julius was filling up the sugar bowl with restaurant sugar packets. I don’t know why but I was falling on the floor when I saw that.
The Big Bang Theory: It was clear watching this episode that this show is going to depend exclusively Sheldon for entertainment. The scenes with Leonard hitting on the Token Hot Chick and his co-worker were excruciatingly boring. And isn’t a little too soon for the Token Hot Chick to figure out Leonard has the hots for her? Shouldn’t they save that awkwardness for at least the second season? Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download or The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Heroes: Sylar’s back. Yawn. This may be the worst decision the show has ever made which says a lot. And what is with the Company having him guarded by only by the shape shifting chick (who definitely upgraded bodies)? Elsewhere, the Wonder Twins with the X-Files eyes: still lame. Invincible chick and Flaying Boy II: extremely cheesy CGI. My Two Dads: still boring. When is Kristen Bell going to show up again? Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Journeyman: It is not a good sign that they are already going to the sensationalized history event already. If I am not mistaken, Quantum Leap waited a couple seasons before they pulled that. And it was a little weird that Dan was so surprised to go back to the same day saying he has never done that before. Um, this is only the third journey nothing should be too surprising yet (well aside from everything about it). And I guess we have to wait to see the blow up between Dan and his wife about him not telling her about Olivia at a later date. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com. You can also download Journeyman on iTunes.
Pushing Daisies: Holy Professor Landry Sighting! Yeah, so that tipped me off a little early to who was behind the whole. The second episode was an improvement over the first (which says a lot if you read my review of it), but I can do without the narrator’s obsessive compulsiveness when it comes to telling us the exact time of things. I could have also done without the retelling of the main theme of the show, the “previously on” did a good enough job at that, hopefully they don’t try pounding that into us every episode. As a straight dude, it is in my DNA to have musicals, but if there is one that I hate the least it is definitely Grease. And the way it was done, I could completely believe that Olive would break out into song at that moment so I can really give the show a pass on that.
The show did clear up one of the biggest questions I had with the first episode when I wondered why Ned couldn’t just pet his dog with a glove on and since he was able to kiss Chuck in the body bag (anyone else had visions of Naked Gun during that scene?) he could conceivable pet the dog with gloves. Although my other biggest question, can someone that Ned revive die naturally or does Ned have to touch them for them ever die again, wasn’t. Because seriously, that dog has to be pushing triple digits in dog years by now. That aside, my favorite part of the episode had to be all of Emerson’s knitting. C’mon, dual wool gun holsters: brilliant. Check out the latest episodes over at ABC.com.
Bionic Woman: Anyone else find it funny that right after the "Is she a lesbian" question they went straight to Isiah Washington? But anyways. After two episode, we finally get to see an actually human side of Jamie. Granted it only lasted five second while dancing with her sister. And the writers are really trying their best to ruin the original Bionic Woman. They introduce her as what looked to be the big bad of the series. The next episode she was more ambiguous. Then in the third episode she had humongous swings from trying to be sympathetic to sarcastic and back to complete evil. So I not sure if I, as a viewer, am supposed to hate her, feel bad for her, or laugh at her. I originally gave the show a month of episodes to win me over and next week is the make or break episode. I get a feeling it is going to be break. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
My Name Is Earl: For the love of good acting, what is Michael Rapaport doing on this show? Even without Rapaport, this would have been a sub par episode. Aside from Our Cops Is On, the show suffers a little when they do flashbacks and what really hurt this time is that we already knew some of the things that were going to happen. With that said, Darnell’s witness protection program bit were still funny. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download My Name Is Earl on iTunes.
Survivor: To show you just how addicted to fantasy sports I am, I even play fantasy Survivor. I bring this up because I picked up Dave this week because I figured if he got naked last challenge he would be the new Richard Hatch only for min not only stay fully clothed the whole episode but he got voted off this week. This isn’t as frustrating as earlier this season when I picked up Ashley for basically the same reason to promptly get voted off because she was blurred almost the whole episode yet not naked point. To me if a person is unclothed enough to be blurred that should count as being naked. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.
Smallville: Well it looked like last week wasn’t just jitters for Supergirl, that is pretty much her whole acting range. She may just challenge the absorbing dude on Heroes for worst actor on television award. But hey, at least she looks good in a bikini.
Friday Night Lights: I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about this episode. I have made it known that I am not a fan of the idea of Coach Taylor living in Austin and the Landry killing a dude plotlines, but I can’t say I am really that disappointed so far. But those two plot point would pale in comparison is Mrs. Taylor ends up cheating with the science teacher. I am really hoping that is not where that is going. And seriously how sad would it be to lose your eligibility over a Justin Timberlake concert? Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
Promo of the Week: My contest to win a copy of Nip/Tuck on DVD may be over (check your e-mail if you entered because I notified the winner this morning) but I still have a couple more promos to share hyping the start of season 5 on October 30th. Here is one of them:
Next Week’s Pick: The Big Bang Theory, Monday at 8:30 on CBS: In the series first three episodes two featured former Rosanne costars, last week it was Sarah Gilbert as one of Leonard’s coworker and this week Laurie Metcalf stops by as Sheldon’s mom (which hopefully mean more Sheldon this week). Any one want to place bets to witch Becky will show up first on the show?
Quote of the Week: (Expletive deleted), I was in the proximity. (Emerson, Pushing Daisies)
Song of the Week: Bad Reputation - Freedy Johnson (Journeyman)
Big News of the Week: Friday Night Lights Moving to Mondays? : I am part of a NBC Panel Group and yesterday I got a survey about Friday Night Lights and the first episode. The questions were pretty run of the mill, rating each character, whether the show focused too much on football, high school, say what you like/dislike, but stuck in the middle of this survey in the agree/disagree portion of the survey was the statement, “I would be more likely to watch if FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS followed HEROES on Monday.” They already tested this scenario once last season garnering the series its highest rating and supposedly Journeyman has gotten disappointing numbers (although if any can explain to me how that can be when more people watched it than Chuck yet Chuck has been said getting good rating) so this may be a reality. Granted if I were running NBC, I would move the show to Sunday once Sunday Night Football is over. If anyone wants to join this panel shout me a holla and I will drop NBC your e-mail.
Also do not forget that this is the last week to enter my Win Nip/Tuck 4.x on DVD Contest. You have until this Friday to enter.
Chuck: Please, please, please, never have the Token Hot Chick fired from Wienerville. And while I am making suggestions, every episode the Token Hot Chick should be required to jump over the counter at least once while at McWieners. And to all the females out there, with Halloween creeping up on us, might I suggest you go as an employ of Wienercabana. In fact, anyone who swings by my pad at the end of the month wearing a company issued Wienertown uniform will get an extra package of raisins. (Yes I give out fruit for Halloween. If you do 50 sit ups maybe I’ll give you a Kit-Kat bar.)
Wieners-R-Us aside, I am really disappointed they kept up the agents trying to kill each other plotlines. Yeah there is animosity between to the two agencies, but having them try to kill each other goes way too far, not too mention it is getting tired already. Just play up the easy Odd Couple angle, no need for the two to come to blows. And I like pretentious music as much as the next musical snob, but did they really need to spin Don’t Make Me a Target by Spoon during each segment? Not too mention the multiple times they played Gnarls Barkley’s version of Gone Daddy Gone. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.
Everybody Hates Chris: Man did it take some time to get used to Chris’ voice change. I got to imagine it has to suck to have your voice change on national TV. Hopefully Chris Rock (the current day version) shows up more times this season because it was great to see him work off his younger alter ego. But hopefully Greg’s diaper doesn’t make another appearance. You can download this episode of Everybody Hates Chris for free on iTunes.
How I Met Your Mother/The Big Bang Theory: There is something to say that this week one of rare time I noticed How I Met Your Mother had a laugh track yet didn’t remember hearing one on The Big Bang Theory this week. It is clear in the year of the nerds this television season; Sheldon is the early favorite as break out star. Granted it doesn’t bode well for the show that I only laughed at one non-Sheldon joke, the sarcasm sign. But the Lois Lane debate is definitely like an inane arguments I routinely have with anyone willing to engage me in a debate of absurd proportions. And if for some reason someone from CBS or the Barenaked Ladies happen upon the 9th Green, in the past two weeks I have gotten an absurd amount of hit looking to download the theme song so I highly recommend getting that on iTunes ASAP. Check out the latest episodes over at Innertube. You can also download How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.
Heroes: Not nearly as funny as last week, mustache dude was MIA, drunken samurai didn’t get much screen time. But it was nice to see Noah and the Haitian reunite even if it were pretty obvious that Mohinder was faking the memory loss. Wonder Twins meet X-Files storyline is still a bore. And unfortunately they still haven’t decided to kill off Absorbing Dude and Hearing Guy once and for all this week. Yawn.
When is Kristen Bell showing up again? Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Journeyman: Still undecided on this show. I hope that he gets to journey outside of San Francisco one of these days because his near misses with friends and family could get old soon. Also getting old fast is the ex-girlfriend vague responses whenever Dan tries to get answers out of her. Could she be Al to his Sam but in the flesh? But any show that plays former Feed You iPod song, Bad Reputation gets another look in my book. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com. You can also download Journeyman on iTunes.
Bionic Woman: Still not sold on the show. Jamie was a little more likeable this week, but still comes off as wooden most of the time. And I’m not sure if it was a shout out to the observant viewer or not, but Jamie’s comment of her sister being a cliché sums up my thoughts of the sister over the past two episodes. They need to get her an interesting storyline and do it soon because I am giving the show only another two week trial run before I drop it for good. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
My Name Is Earl: For most of the summer I was hoping that it wouldn’t take long for Earl to get parole, but after the first two episodes of the season I wouldn’t mind that all if he take the whole season to get out because it looks like there are plenty of ways for Earl to do good deeds on the inside. The inept Coach as the warden just adds to the hilarity of it all. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download My Name Is Earl on iTunes.
Survivor: Well my prediction of a one tribe sweep got crushed this week. But how do you let someone who weighs about as much as a machete wield one in an immunity challenge? And the reward challenge was pretty cheap letting the challenge be decided by letting the females go an extra time. The tiebreaker should have been let everyone compete at once. Now that would have been interesting. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.
Smallville: Wow, what an auspicious start by Supergirl. No, it wasn’t in the way they wrote the character it is that girl just can’t act, which says a lot considering usually girls that are moderately attractive like this can blind me to some iffy acting skills. Hopefully this was just first episode jitters because if she doesn’t get better I’m not sure I could watch a whole season if she is part of it. Well unless I utilize the mute button.
Next Week’s Pick: Hip-Hop Honors, Monday 10:00 VH1: Monday is a pretty crowded day for television, but all the shows will be put on the back burner (luckily there is nothing worth watching on Tuesday so I can catch up) for what has become the third best award show after the Grammy’s and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (well next year may not be as good if they let Madonna in). For the previous three shows I have said, “Great, but where is A Tribe Called Quest?” Well Tribe will finally getting their just dues this year along with Snoop Dogg, Kool G Rap, Whodini, Missy Elliot, New Jack Swing and Wild Style.
Quote of the Week: Who else thinks the Civil War ain’t over, it’s just half-time? (Earl, My Name Is Earl)
Song of the Week: Look After You - The Fray (Journeyman)
Big News of the Week: New CW Shows Tank: Congratulations The CW you just spent millions of dollars promoting a show in Reaper, including paying off critics to make people believe the show was worth watching, only for it to debut with numbers worse than Veronica Mars scored in its first week last year in the same timeslot; a show you promoted with about as much money as you found in your couch cushion. Then to add more insult to injury, your other “show that will bring viewers to The CW,” Gossip Girl almost scored almost a full million less viewer in its first week with any competition this week too compared to that Veronica Mars premiere. So The CW, you may want to get on the phone as soon as possible and beg Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell to get Veronica Mars: The FBI Years ready for the 2008 season and hope all the bridges you burned for canceling the show the first time will be rebuilt by then. Because if you are going to put on shows that get low rating, at least put on one with a loyal fan base that doesn’t cost you as much money. (Full Disclosure: The Nielsen Rating are a sham and I tend not to believe any of the numbers used to make the argument above, but since The CW are stupid enough to think the numbers are accurate it works in the aurgument.)
Speaking of Nielsen, as I mentioned earlier this week, I am up for their TV Blogger of the Year Award despite actually being a TV blog. It was somewhat prestigious when they first made me award of the award being one of about ten blog including actual credible blogs like Television Without Pity and Brilliant But Canceled (okay, I missed how either were actual blogs themselves, but that would be like the story of the kettle and the pot), but now the contest has ballooned up to about a hundred. Yawn. And I realized their whole voting system is pretty hard to figure out. And their website, which was interesting when I had an exclusive beta invitation, has just turned into a place for spammers for their favorite crappy shows. But if you have too much time on you hand, or have already signed up for the site, feel free to head over and give me a pity vote (I have pretty much given up on winning a t-shirt). Also don’t forget to check out my contest where you can win the fourth season of Nip/Tuck on DVD.
How I Met Your Mother: Better than most of the second season, but something just felt off. Maybe it was the recycling of the lower back tattoo that played out two years ago. Maybe it was they didn’t spend enough time with the special guest stars Mandy Moore and Enrique Iglesias (who shouldn’t quit his day job). Of course maybe it was because they totally stole my break-up beard routine. Granted I typically demoted my beard from goatee to fu Manchu to Charlie Chaplin moustache before going bare. And I don’t want to seem as obsessed with hair as Tony Kornheiser, but what was with both of the female’s hair. It is time to fire the show’s stylist. But we are one step closer to meeting the mother, although it was a little insulting to the intelligence to end the show with all black umbrellas with one lone yellow umbrella(ella, ella, eh,eh,eh). Check out the latest episode over at Innertube. The show also showed up in iTunes this week and you can download the last two episodes from last season for free as I write this, but be warned, those were two of the worst episodes in the series history.
Heroes: Darn you Heroes for once again teasing me that you killed off Absorbing Guy just to reveal once again that he wasn’t in fact dead like everyone think. For the love of good acting, the next time you kill him off make sure he stays dead. Of course it would be pretty apropos if Kristen Bell is the one that finally does the deed having one of the best actors today kill off one of the worst. But anyways.
Horrible acting aside, I could also complain how uninteresting the Spanish people are or how they have created so many Heroes that they have already started to recycling abilities (flight) but I want to talk about how funny the premiere was. No seriously, I think I laughed more during Heroes that I did How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and Chuck combined. First, despite starting to be grating during the end of last season, Hero meeting his hero, who just happened to be a drunk British guy. Yeah the premise sounds like a cheesy blockbuster film that should star Martin Laurence or Tom Cruise, yet somehow the actor somehow made it work. Then there was Noah’s boss whom I hope turns out to be a hero himself and much like Samson have his powers being drawn from his moustache. And I’m not even sure why I found it funny but the Bennet family dinner, complete with Mr. Muggles, was so inane I just busted out laughing the whole scene. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
My Name Is Earl: A strong start and it was nice to see that Earl could still cross off things on his list while in prison. But I still prefer my sitcoms in half hour portions and some of the jokes started to get stretched too long. At least the new guy at NBC said he was getting rid of those stupid Supersized episodes, so we don’t have to worry with those anymore. The best part of the episode though was Joy taking in Randy and trying to teach him how to fend for himself. Check out the latest episode over at NBC.com.
Survivor: Wow, I can’t believe they actually let the wrestler get voted off, but I guess when someone goes unanimously, it is hard to swing some votes to keep her on. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they bring back the castoff survivors like they did in the Panama season. We also get to see the big twist this season with the winning reward challenge tribe getting to kidnap an opposing tribe member who in part gets to give a hint to the not so hidden immunity idol. Should be interesting who tells who about what is going down. And I am beginning to think that my prediction of the one tribe never winning anything is actually going to come true. Check out the latest episode over at Innertube.
Smallville: Nobody does season finale/premieres quite like Smallville. In the finales almost every character is in some dire situation and everything is somehow back to normal by the end of the finale. We even had two deaths in the finale, and both were seen alive and kicking by the final scene of the premiere. Of course if you actually thought Lana was dead, you weren’t paying attention (and I not just taking about her still being in the credits); let take the time machine back to May 20th, “Lana who actually got in the van that passed by preventing Lionel (who may or may not be in on it) to reach her, and then remotely blew up the car to fake her own death.”
Also check out my First Impressions of these shows:
Chuck (where you can also check out a Bloggers Must Watch Guide at the bottom)
You can also check out my season review of Dexter: In the Blood (everyone got the Better than Ezra reference right? Anybody? Anybody at all?)
Promo of the Week:
Next Week’s Pick: Friday Night Lights, Friday 9:00 on NBC: A new day for last year’s best new show. I still have avoided temptation from watching the premiere episode on Yahoo, but from the promo above, you can tell at least one of Dillion’s finest who will be showing up in swimwear in the premiere. I would be remised if I also didn’t mention Pushing Daisies which has its series premiere on Wednesday at 8:00 on ABC. Let’s hope that it lives up to the hype.
Check out some of the shows mentioned above on Amazon Unbox which you can transfer to you Tivo (if you are one of those pretencious types, everyone else will have to watch on theor computer; also notice how How I Met Your Mother is currently 0.00 which all the math classes I have taken in taken in my life would have me believe that makes the show free for download):
So I was perusing the iTunes for new stuff like I do every Tuesday and was extremely surprised to see Chuck front and center when I flipped the the TV section. And NBC other debut last night, Journeyman also popped up on the site. But, unless I am blind, I did not see the second season premiere of Heroes there. But the inclusion of Chuck and Journeyman of course is surprising because NBC said a couple weeks ago they were not renewing their contract with iTunes which ends in December. And since it ended in December NBC said they would not be adding any new shows because they didn't want to pull the shows from the site mid-season. But there are Chuck and Journeyman, complete with the option of buying a season pass. So either NBC and iTunes kissed and made up like I predicted it would before the television season started or someone made an extremely huge mistake. If they did make up, I wonder which side caved because, as I am writing this, I have not seen any news reports on it. Either way, if you are interested in buying either show, click the link below:
I was going to save my Heroes commentary for my 57 Channels post this weekend, but since I wrote it last night after the show and have this very special two day post, here it is a couple days earlier:
Heroes: Darn you Heroes for once again teasing me that you killed off Absorbing Guy just to reveal once again that he wasn’t in fact dead like everyone thinks. For the love of good acting, the next time you kill him off make sure he stays dead. Of course it would be pretty apropos if Kristen Bell is the one that finally does the deed by having one of the best actors today kill off one of the worst. But anyways.
Horrible acting aside, I could also complain how uninteresting the Spanish people are or how they have created so many Heroes that they have already started to recycling abilities (flight) but I want to talk about how funny the premiere was. No seriously, I think I laughed more during Heroes that I did How I Met Your Mother (you will have to wait until this weekend on my thoughts there except what was with all the bad hair on that show last night?), The Big Bang Theory, and Chuck combined. First, despite starting to be grating during the end of last season, Hero meeting his hero, who just happened to be a drunk British guy. Yeah the premise sounds like a cheesy blockbuster film that should star Martin Laurence or Tom Cruise, yet somehow the actor somehow made it work. Then there was Noah’s boss whom I hope turns out to be a hero himself and much like Samson have his powers being drawn from his moustache. And I’m not even sure why I found it funny but the Bennett family dinner, complete with Mr. Muggles, was so inane I just busted out laughing during the whole scene.
Sigh, when is Kristen Bell going to showing up again?
Every new television season you inevitably hear shows being called the “new” this or that. This is done to get fans of previous shows to tune in. But whenever I hear the “new” tag I usually think why would watch Moonlight just because it is a lesser version of Angel. I watched Angel because it was great not because it was a second rate version of something else. Another new show this season that gets a lot of comparison to a past show is Journeyman with everyone talking about it is like Quantum Leap thanks to the time travel to fix things in the past.
But really, that is where the similarities end for good or for bad. There is no hologram there to give the time traveler any hints on what they should do and the Journeyman always comes back to the present at the end of the day which brings in a whole new dynamic because he has a wife, kid, brother, and job he has to juggle while unexpectingly being taken into the past. And Journeyman is certainly not done tongue in cheek like a bulk of the predecessors episodes were.
Kevin McKidd plays the time traveler in question and for anyone who has watched Rome it may take a little time to get used to his new accent. And maybe it will show up in future episodes but it is somewhat disappointing that he wasn’t able to inject any humor into the role because as seen on Rome he can make something seem funny even in a serious setting. Not only does McKidd has to deal with leaving his family without notice while whisked into the past, while in the past he always seemed to run into his ex-girlfriend who later died in a plane crash.
But to say the Pilot was mediocre would be kind. It is hard to follow at time; it took me three “journeys” to realize he was going back at different points in time. And I am not sure if Moon Bloodgood, the ex-girlfriend, could be a convincing actress even if she were playing Moon Bloodgood in The Moon Bloodgood Story. But then again her poor acting won’t seem that out of place considering the show follows Heroes and she does get as naked as any censor would allow on network television, so that is a plus. On the good side, the episode had a twist so surprising I had to rewind to see if I saw what I thought I just saw (see spoiler section at end of the post). Plus the episode ends with an emotional moment that gave me goosebumps and that just doesn’t happen that often. Darn you The Fray and your melodic tunes.
Verdict: Here is a show that can go either way. The twist seen mid way through the episode could make the series very interesting. But it could also fall into a Quantum Leap retread. If NBC.com offers the show to stream on their website I may continue to watch the show. Journeyman airs Mondays at 10:00 on NBC. You can also download the first episode for the show for free on Amazon Unbox (see below for the ad and below the ad are some spoilers so be warned).
Spoiler Section
Okay, I try to avoid major spoilers for show that haven’t aired but the major twist was so shocking I just had to write about it. From the beginning I was convinced that the ex-girlfriend wasn’t dead, but I was completely blown away when it turned out that not only was she not dead but she herself was a Journeywoman. Which brings up so many questions like is she the reason why he is now journeying? Did she go in hiding in the present after her first journey or is she constantly leaping through time like Sam Beckett? This twist alone makes the show another shot for at least a couple more episodes. But I have to wonder if him journeying back to San Francisco, where he lives, was a just a plot point for the first episode for him to run into his ex-girlfriend and will be going other places in future episode or if he will go back to San Francisco exclusively because that can cause way too many conundrums for the show.
. Way to go with that one Fox. Check out the latest episodes over at NBC.com.
unscaved so hopefully he doesn’t rub off on her. And if that weren’t enough of Ms. Bell, Tuesday also sees the release of the third season of Veronica Mars on DVD (see right) which features the FBI pitch that was unfortunately not picked up by The CW and looking at the ratings of the shows it picked up instead, that decision is looking even worse than before.
.
. I watched Angel because it was great not because it was a second rate version of something else. Another new show this season that gets a lot of comparison to a past show is Journeyman with everyone talking about it is like 
thanks to the time travel to fix things in the past.
he can make something seem funny even in a serious setting. Not only does McKidd has to deal with leaving his family without notice while whisked into the past, while in the past he always seemed to run into his ex-girlfriend who later died in a plane crash.
and she does get as naked as any censor would allow on network television, so that is a plus. On the good side, the episode had a twist so surprising I had to rewind to see if I saw what I thought I just saw (see spoiler section at end of the post). Plus the episode ends with an emotional moment that gave me goosebumps and that just doesn’t happen that often. Darn you