57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/18/13

Ray Donovan: That fake movie, Black Mass, was one of the funniest fake movies I have seen in a while. Someone needs to rush it into production. Get Robert Rodriguez on the phone. It is nice that Ray named his daughter after his dead sister, but it can get distracting on a shown when he starts talking about his sister and I spend a couple weird moments wondering why he is talking about his daughter like that.

Switched at Birth: I feel cheated that we did not get to witness Travis and MaryBeth’s first (or second or third) date. That had to be highly entertaining. Certainly more entertaining than Toby’s bachelor party at the free clinic.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Switched at Birth on iTunes.

Siberia: It is nice that they tried to explain why the cameramen would not just put the cameras down and start helping out. Of course if I were the cameraman tasked with following the group to the tower, I would have passed, or at the very least asked them to take turns filming stuff. Of course if this really was real, the battery would have died a long time ago without the ability to recharge at the base camp. I also had to laugh at how everyone was complaining about how hard it would reach the tower ten miles away. Colin Ferrell starred in a movie not too long ago about a group of prisoners who escaped a Siberian prison camp, in the dead of winter at that, and managed to walk all the way to Tibet and that was based on a real story. Okay, I think half the people ended up dying, but ten miles should not be that bad in the fall. Unless of course you come across ground zero of what may very well be nuclear testing.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Siberia on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Just last week I rejoiced that Ezra’s baby mama was moving to Washington because there would be no way Ezra would not follow the child he just found out about. Fast forward to this week and Erza’s kid is not actually his kid. What!?! Which means he will probably go back to having sex with his student. Chris Hansen really needs to pay the writers room a visit.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Bridge: A lot of back-story this week, we learned that Sonya’s sister’s murder was handed by her now boss (and she does not know… yet) and she still visits her sister’s murderer in prison even his diminutive mental state. While we also learned that Marco’s father had ties to Fasto’s father who started Fasto’s current business. So did Marco go into law enforcement to rebel against his father or to be a mole for the family business? And it did cross my mind that the two back stories could have intertwined somehow and maybe Sonya’s sister’s killer may have worked for Marco’s father and this whole mystery has been about Sonya and Marco this whole time.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Bridge on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals II: I have been watching the show live the last couple of weeks and the frequency of the commercial breaks is really distracting. It seemed like the girls half of the challenge had three breaks itself. It just ruins the flow to have an ad every four to five minutes. I really need to go back to watchjing the show OnDemand where I can fast forward through the commercials even if MTV does not offer HD on their OnDemand channel and I am stuck watching in standard definition.
You can download The Challenge: Rivals II on iTunes.

Best of the Week: 8/17/13

Quote of the Week: She trusts me. I’m a cop. (Sonya Cross, The Bridge)

Song of the Week: Ain't No Sunshine – Bill Withers (as sung by Bridget Donovan and Marvin Gaye, Ray Donovan)

Big News of the Week: The Return of Crappy Music: 2013 has been a bad year for music. And not only has there been a lack of great music, there really has not been any horrible music either. Unfortunately we will have to wait a bit longer for some more great music, but horrible music came back with a vengeance this week when both new songs from Katy Perry and Lade Gaga leaked last week and then both rushed to iTunes on Monday.

Both made grand preoccupations of growth and expansions of their sound, Perry even went as far as burning relics from her California Gurls days George Michael style, except when Roar came out, it did not sound all that different from Firework (or Sara Bareilles’s Brave as everyone has pointed). While Lady Gaga has spent the last month trying to out hyperbole Kanye West but where Yeezus actually pushed the envelope for better or worse (I would argue worse) Gaga’s Applause is a crappy disco song that sounds like it got rejected from her first album for not being good enough. It does look like Perry is easily winning the battle of bad music as Roar has kept Applause out of the top slot all week and by Friday Applause had dropped to four after Blurred Lines and some country song.

Thankfully there is some good music on the way to join the stellar album by The Civil Wars next month by Janelle Monáe, Jack Johnson, Elvis Costello & The Roots, and for those looking for pop music that isn’t cheesy and boring, Haim and Lorde are both dropping their full length debut album on the 31 of September.

Preview Picture of the Week:

“Bring Down the Hoe” Pretty Little Liars Tuesday at 8:00 on ABC Family

Free Download of the Week: Pilot - Veronica Mars (iTunes): For those that have wonder what the whole Veronica Mars thing is about since a movie got Kickstarted, you can now watch the Pilot for the low, low price of free. And once you get addicted by watching the first episode, iTunes also currently has all three season at a discount. There is plenty of time to catch up by the time the movie is released.

Deal of the Week: Get twenty-five debut album for a discount including the first albums from Beastie Boys, Counting Crows, Norah Jones, and The Black Keys:


New Album Release of the Week: Paradise Valley - John Mayer

New DVD Release of the Week: Boardwalk Empire: The Complete Third Season

Video of the Week: This week TNT released its first trailer for the upcoming Mob City (formally Lost Angels), the first post-The Walking Dead show from Frank Darabont, which also stars that show’s Jon Bernthal. The fist look makes it seem very stylized, but I could not help but thinking about the underwhelming Gangster Squad while watching this. Still I am still skeptically optimistic. Mob City premieres December 4 on TNT.

Next Week Pick of the Week: Switched at Birth, Monday at 8:00 on ABC Family: It is wedding day on Switched At Birth and I put the odds at the wedding actually happening at fifty-fifty. Maybe the better question is who will be the one to call it off or who will be the people to finally reason with Toby or Nikki that getting married this early may not be the best idea. It probably will not be Daphne who is walking down the path of mutual destruction with Chip Coto. But what bomb could he lob at Daphne that could be as bad as knocking up with an intern? I am guessing her father's heart attack will be coming back into play.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/11/13

Falling Skies: Did they not just kill Karen two episodes ago? Being a sci-fi show I would not be at all surprised if we see her again. Maybe the Karen we saw die was not the real Karen and she was just some sort of real life robot the aliens were able to produce just to mess with the humans. I do not remember if it was ever explained why she still worked with the aliens without the harness on. And I wonder if there will be any resentment from Hal that Maggie killed Karen. Hall did seem shocked by the action even though that was the humane thing to do and really if Hal should be mad at anyone over Karen’s death it should be at his father.

And as creepy as baby Lexi was, school-girl Lexi is even creepier. I thought it was callous of Tom to shot Karen without trying to barter a way to get the bugs out of her, but I turned out Tom has his own creepy witch doctor in the family. I wonder if she will be a gull teenager by the start of next season. It may only make it even more creepy.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Ray Donovan: One of my longstanding pet peeves on television are dream sequences and drug trips are a corollary to that, but really, even I cannot hate a drug trip that features a monkey. But I was a bid disappointed that the cop that pulled him over did not morph into The Terminator as he was talking to the agent. And I did complain at the start of the show that I feared it would devolve into cheesy fake celebrity problems that Ray would have to solve every week (which thankfully for the most part it has not) that NBA lottery plan was disturbingly brilliant.

Under the Dome: So at the center of the town (which for some reason is a secluded wooded area, not downtown like normal cities) is a mini dome which encases an egg. Alrighty.
You can stream Under The Dome exclusively on Amazon Instant Video, free for Prime members.

Siberia: It is a little bothersome that the show does not notice the little things. There was an actual scene where the one chick is hunting for deer with the cameraman walking right in front of her. Seriously. No cameraman on a real reality show would walk directly in front of someone with a bow cocked back. At least the show moved the plot forward with the disappearance of everyone on the crew, aside from the cameramen on duty. But then that begs the question, what happened to the faux lesbian who “left” earlier in the day. Did she really make it out just before everything went down, or was she just wondering around for the day? Granted it is highly suspicious that we did not get to see her leave, so I have a feeling she may have been captured by the creepy kids lurking around.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Siberia on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: It looks like I was right, that Mona would essentially plea insanity and find herself back at the mental institution. I wonder if they will heighten security this stay after she admitting to sneaking out multiple times during her last stint.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Bridge: Wow, that discussion on serial killers was profound. Too bad I had to read it. And as much as I find that Sonia lives somewhere on the autism spectrum, that meal with the family was actually entertaining in its uncomfortableness. Poor Marco, you really cannot come up with a good example as to why your wallet falls out of your pants innocently. The best thing I could come up with would be to cut a hole in your back pocket and hope she buys it just happened to bust while at the home of another woman to have her sign documents.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Bridge on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals II: The biggest problem with shows like this is that voting is extremely predictable (Survivor tried to shake things up with the addition of the Hidden Immunity Idol, but it really has only affected the outcome of a Tribal Council three or four times; I am pretty sure more people have gone home with an Idol in their pocket then have been saved by one) so it is always entertaining when a vote goes disastrously bad like when Teresa “threw away” her vote on her hook up LeRoy only for half the people after her following her lead and also voting for LeRoy, sending him into The Jungle. Not that it ended up mattering because LeRoy was saved by an even more rare occurrence with a disqualification in an elimination round (the only other time I remember this happening was to CT who crushed someone as he usually does, only to be sent home on a technicality).
You can download The Challenge: Rivals II on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 8/4/13

Falling Skies: So Tom was able to figure out who the mole is because someone said something similar to what he remember Lourdes said hours before but did not realize it did not make sense to him when she first said it? I hate when writers continually put these kinds of revelations into scripts. Way too cute, just have someone walk in on Lourdes trying to kill Cochise. The reveal would have been more satisfying and less absurd.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Ray Donovan: I wonder what exactly Ray’s wife thinks he does for a living. Is she just a she no evil her no evil, blind to the fact who just does not ask as long as there is food on the table. Or the kind that does know deep down, but will not say anything because she has grown accustomed to her lifestyle. Or does she really know, does not care, and is just mad that he may be cheating on her and that is the preverbal line.

Switched at Birth: ASL karaoke: who knew? And I am not sure if I should have laughed at all the cheesy ASL pick up lines that Travis was trying. It should be interesting to watch his date with MaryBeth which I have a feeling may devolve into the episode of The Big Bang Theory where Raj went on a date with the chick who plays Daphne with Howard as the interpreter.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Switched at Birth on iTunes.

Siberia: When the show first appeared I theorized that it would turn out to be a rip off of The Cabin In The Woods, and if that is the case, the Powers that Be sure pumped in the pheromones this episode because there were people hooking up all over the place. I also had to think of another horror movie, Evil Dead, when the Serbian dude found the book. I was screaming at the dude, you do open up creepy books that are hidden. But at least he did not try reading from it. Yet.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Siberia on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Oh Mona, you sneaky devil. But did she fall on the sword to make it up to Hanna for all the A stuff, or does she have a devious master plan that she is not letting on. Either way, she probably could get off, she worked out the self defense claim with Hanna, and worse case scenario, she could just e declared insane again and go back to Bradley, which may very well be her masterplan.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Bridge: So not only is the creepy trailer dude not a murderer, he is actually coyote for Mexican prostitutes trying to get up from under the thumb from an evil sex trafficking drug lord(who can easily get a million dollars to Marco to pay for his other stolen property). Oh yeah, and he is so compassionate, he will even help snakes across the street. Alrighty. And it took me about half the episode to realize that was a clean shaven and fully functioning Johnny Crowder as the FBI agent. Considering what happened to him, it may have been better had I not recognized him.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Bridge on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals II: When I saw the title of this episode was Mortuusequusphobia‬, I got excited because I assumed it would be another spelling challenge this week. Silly me, they would never use a word longer than five letters in the spelling challenge. I guess it is safe to assume that mortuusequusphobia‬ is the fear of ketchup or condiments in general. But as great as the Jemmye mental breakdown was, the Jungle was as equally disappointing. C’mon promo monkeys, you do not hype the most dangerious elimination round ever only not to have one.
You can download The Challenge: Rivals II on iTunes.

The Hero: Patty?!? Seriously America? Apparently the only people who watched (and or voted) besides me bored housewives who thought they were Patty. And Patty winning is probably the best reason why there will not be a second season. If only the casted the inaugural season better.
You can download The Hero on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 7/28/13

Falling Skies: When Tom shot Karen my first thought was oh my God, they killed Karen! My second thought was, wait, she did not say that line they repeated over and over again in the promos, they must have Inceptioned Tom putting him in a dream inside a dream. Stupid promo monkeys spoiling the episode. But I wonder how many people spotted Cochise in Tom’s dream. If you missed it, that was Doug Jones without his Chochise costume talking to Gloria Rubin in the teacher’s lounge.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Ray Donavan: There are very few things I need to see less than Jon Voight dancing to Now That We Found Love in a gay bar.

Under the Dome: An interesting question of what would be on your playlist if you only have a half an hour before being nuked by your own government. The DJ went with the soothing tones of Mozart. I think I would embrace the impending doom and put on It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) or maybe War Pigs. And all it took for the dude to care about his sister was a MOAB. Though odd it took Big Jim a whole day to decide he should release her. But will Junior just drag her back down next episode after he realizes the bomb failed? At least the preacher finally died. It was pretty obvious after the pacemaker took out the sheriff that the preacher’s hearing aid would do him in.
You can stream Under The Dome exclusively on Amazon Instant Video, free for Prime members.

Pretty Little Liars: So we got our first confirmation that Red Coat is Cece, assuming that hanger dude was not told to give that name by the real Red Coat if pressed. I am thinking that is the case because that is kind of an underwhelming reveal and shows like this love big reveals. I am still betting Allison is actually alive and pulling the strings.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Bridge: My biggest complaint about the Pilot was that I do not really like when there are random characters that seem to have no connects but undoubtedly will end up intercepting by the end of the season. Thankfully we only had to wait three episodes before the three random storylines started to intercut as the police had to inform Charlotte of the ransom and Steven became the chief suspect of the investigation. Now I just wonder how long they stay in each other’s path or how long before we get a connection between Charlotte and Steven.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Bridge on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals II: That was one solid episode even if both challenges were kind of lame (remember the good old days when they had to melt blocks of ice with only body heat?). You had Marlon open up the episode by hooking up with a dude and closed it out with hooking up with a chick (this season needs more Nanny who along with Frank was the breakout star last season). He even got in a shouting match with Knight after a game of charades got out of hand (which may be the first time ever anywhere; Hollywood Game Night certainly would be more watchable if a brawl broke out after a game of charades). And that was not even the best fight of the night which went to Anessa and Trashelle which featured Trashelle hitting Anessa’s elbow with her face which was enough to make Trashelle quit which, of course, pissed off T.J (and inadvertently sent Sarah packing for the second time simply because of the partner she was paired with). And an annoyed T.J. is an entertaining T.J. This gave me the idea of an entire season made up exclusively of people who have quit in the past. It would be awesome to see T.J. tear down these contestants week after week.
You can download The Challenge: Rivals II on iTunes.

The Hero: Of course the two people I was thinking of voting for ended up going home in the last episode. Really, all the talk of what it means to be a hero got extremely annoying this season. Seriously, you not a hero for electing to go home yourself, you are a moron. Even worse, Charles probably had the best chance of the final six to win. I hope for Charles’ sake, whoever win thinks it is heroic enough to throw him some dollars for his stupid selfish act.
You can download The Hero on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 7/21/13

Falling Skies: I never thought Hal was the mole, just too obvious. But do you know who was not at all obvious: Lourdes. Certainly did not see that coming. And that face worm scene was extremely creepy. But how exactly did she know all the strategic planning? Not really something a doctor would be privy two. As for the Masons, all the counter attacks really started to border on absurdity. There had to be about six in one episode lone.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Ray Donovan: The first two episodes were good, but the show was just missing something to get me invested in it. That may have finally came when the dude who got Papa Donovan out of prison showed up and we ended the episode in his dark basement with Ray and all his friends posted on his wall. This scene really should have been the final scene of the premiere.

Switched at Birth: Bay and Daphne’s talk about sex may have been the most uncomfortable thing I have seen on television in a long time.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Switched at Birth on iTunes.

Under the Dome: So the brother finally asked someone about his sister. That only took three days. Not that he cared all that much because it look like he is already renting out her room. But just what is Big Jim going to do with her? If he lets her go, he will have to send his son, who just did not disappoint him for the very first time in his life, to jail. Since it is flooded, he really cannot keep her in the bunker. So it is either lock her up in the house or kill her.
You can stream Under The Dome exclusively on Amazon Instant Video, free for Prime members.

Siberia: It is annoying on competition reality show when contestants talk about “playing the game” and it is even more annoying on this show because there really is no “game” to play. There are no competitions, not elimination, the only thing they have to do is not die, that really is not a game.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Siberia on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: When Spencer drove into that town I thought she drove into a different show. It turns out I was right. For the unaware, Ravenswood is an upcoming Pretty Little Liars spin-off show (do not get too attached to the Hanna / Caleb relationship because is joining that cast). If the show is as creepy as these segments would suggest, it may be worth watching.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Bridge: I do not know what I would do if a woman who looked like Diane Kruger walked up to me in a bar and propositioned me for sex right off the bat. I do not know what I would do if any woman walked up to me in a bar and propositioned me for sex right off the bat. I would probably be too paranoid that I was on a hidden camera show or that she is just luring me back to her place to harvest my organs that I would end up passing up the opportunity. It may not be a good thing that this was my big take away from the episode why my biggest question would be is a hostess really an upgrade over a waitress?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Bridge on iTunes.

The Challenge: Rivals II: Seriously producers, if all you can get on short notice was Cara Maria, just send Cooke home. No one wants to see her ever again (including the contestants). It is not even a hate to love thing, it is a wants to turn the channel thing. And a note to any newbies to the Challenge, watch previous seasons. I had to shake my head when Anastasia got mad at CT for using her as her own personal plaything. Had she watched the show before, she would have known that is his M.O. with the exception of Diem. Not watching the previous seasons would be as dumb as training by smoking cigarettes and not eating (God bless TJ).
You can download The Challenge: Rivals II on iTunes.

The Hero: I was really hoping they were going to vote Patti into the Hero’s Challenge, I could have done without her for the final episode. And again it is annoying they are going make us wait a week to find out who gets voted off, really unnecessary. I really doubt there are many people out there that were thinking of not watching next week but will turn in just to see who will be voted off.
You can download The Hero on iTunes.

Best of the Week: 7/20/13

Quote of the Week: Mo’ Mona, mo’ problems. (Spencer Hastings, Pretty Little Liars)

Song of the Week: Twerk It – V.I.C. (Ray Donavon)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: The Emmy Nominations Are Out: And like ever other year I do not care. Seriously, do Emmy voters not get FX?

Preview Picture of the Week:

"Pilot" The Vineyard, Tuesday at 10:00 on ABC Family

Free Download of the Week: Noisetrade Eastside Manor Sessions – Caitlin Rose

New Album Release of the Week: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

New DVD Release of the Week: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 3

Video of the Week: Hannibal gag reel. Insert your own joke here.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Web Therapy, Tuesday at 11:00 on Showtime: The web series turned television show returns for its third season this week, look out for a review later this week.

Best of the Week: 7/13/13

Quote of the Week: The guys got The Simpsons Movie going on a loop. They totally saw the dome coming. (Ben Drake, Under the Dome)

Song of the Week: Private Eyes – Hall and Oates (as sung by Ashley Rucker, Ray Donavan)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: God Still Hates Cleveland: Not even a month after LeBron got another title, we start the Andrew Bynum era. Yeah.

Preview Picture of the Week:

"Stealing Secrets" King and Maxwell, Monday at 10:00 on TNT

Free Download of the Week: Tower (Don't Look Down) – Skylar Grey (iTunes): You can check out my review of her album here: Someone’s Gonna Get Hurt, and it’s Not Gonna Be Me

Deal of the Week: $3.99 and Under Album Sale: Get really cheap albums from Santana, Gavin DeGraw, Band of Horses, and The Offspring:


New Album Release of the Week: The Blessed Unrest - Sara Bareilles

New DVD Release of the Week: Evil Dead

Video of the Week: Amanda Seyfried is way too attractive to play Linda Lovelace. They certainly could have gotten Lindsey Lohan to play this part, even if she is a significantly worse actress than Amanda. I really have no desire to see Lily Kane in this. But much like all her horrible chick flicks she has been in over the past decade, I probably still will.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Deal with It, Wednesday at 10:30 on TBS: The Challenge is getting a little competition in its timeslot this week with a former contestant when Theo Von (who started his Road Rules career way back in 2000 and last appeared on The Challenge in 2006) hosts the latest hidden camera show which is being executive produced by Howie Mandel. Of course if the show does not work out, Theo can always go back to The Challenge which welcomed Trishelle back for the past two seasons after an eight year hiatus.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 7/7/13

Falling Skies: C’mon boys, you should not be fighting to the death over a snake. And could they rescue team really be able to tell it was Anne was abducted by Skidders just by footprints? You are really giving up after finding footprints?
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: Sign Language fights are always really weird to watch and a little hard to follow along reading the translation.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Switched at Birth on iTunes.

Under the Dome: It only took two episodes but there were people finally doing what would have been high on my priorities list if a mystical dome fell down around my hometown: start digging and spray-paint it (granted I would not have done that for graffiti but to look for holes). And now that I know that the dome goes over a lake, I would see if I could swim under it next. But now I have to wonder when is the one dude going to realize his sister is missing? It is not like she could go anywhere. And why is The Lawnmowerman in the credits for the main cast? Is he going to come back to life? Is there as unseen to us twin brother on the other side of the dome? Reanimated corpse? Bodynatcher? Or are we just going to get a lot of flashbacks so the producers wanted him on the permanent payroll like Alison on Pretty Little Liars?
You can stream Under The Dome exclusively on Amazon Instant Video, free for Prime members.

Siberia: If Under the Dome was the most anticipated show of the summer with CBS promoting it for months and had it in development for even longer, Siberia may have been the least anticipated. It seemed like NBC just green lit the show last month from someone no one has heard of, cast nobodies, barely bothered to promote it, and then put it up against the previously mentioned Under the Dome. But I was intrigued by the fake reality show concept (SPOILER ALERT! the show is not real) and the premiere did look like a first episode of Survivor: Siberia (of course this is something Survivor would never do because it would eliminate scantily clad hot people) but still missed the feeling (I am guessing it is the soundtrack). Instead the show came off as a mix between two one and done shows Persons Unknown and The River. Two shows that had intriguing ideas but failed in execution. Hopefully Siberia can break that trend.

I do have two working theories as to how the season (probably series) ends: 1) it is a fake reality show and everyone who “dies” is really just an actor but I doubt any write would have the guts to do this so it is more likely 2) this is part of a ritual killing every one hundred years and the “contestants” were just brought in as a sacrifice (be it known or unknown to the producers). Of course that would kind of make it just a complete rip off of The Cabin in the Woods. But people have ripped off worse ideas.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Siberia on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: So Melissa is not on the A-Team and has been protection Spencer this whole time and it was Wilden under the Queen of Hearts mask the whole time? What? This is starting to get too convoluted for a show of this quality. It may be time to just end this whole A stuff by the end of this season and start up a new mystery next season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 6/30/31

Falling Skies: An interesting choice, get the harness removed or not. On one hand, you can go back to being a normal human being without worrying that you may sprout four extra legs at some point. But on the other hand you no longer are super human without having to worry about coming down with normal human diseases and ailments. Personally I would much rather go back to being one hundred percent human, but for the good of the show, it was wise that Ben kept his harness on because the guy is already pretty boring with it on and would be a worthless character without it. And we finally got conformation that Anne’s demon seed is alien. Which begs the question, is any of it even Tom’s? Was she actually impregnated by one of the alien’s tiny insect things? Will the baby start sprouting extra legs? If you pull back the baby’s skin, will she turn out to be a lizard baby?
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Mad Men: When a young Dick Whitman up earlier this season it was met with a resounded “huh?” I was under the impression we resolved Dick when the original Mrs.’ Draper died never to be seen again because the audience, and it seemed even Matthew Weiner, did not want to go there again. So that is why Little Dick kept popping up this season, Don just blurted out his back-story in front of Hersey of all people (leading everyone to assume that is the moment that has been depicted in the credits all these years) before taking his children to his childhood house. But my favorite part of the episode was the fight between Don and Ted which was basically a fight between who needs to start over more.  Who would have guessed that Don would be the once who would concede?
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Under the Dome: I did not have much expectations of the show going into it, it was a summer show. A summer show on CBS, a network I cannot remember the last time I watched a drama on (Love Monkey, maybe). But the show looked up my alley because it did not look very CBS-like, which would not speak well for its longevity until it ended up the biggest summer premiere in a couple years. The show did quickly set up the claustrophobia of a small town literally trapped in a bubble. Although I was a bit surprise not one person grabbed a shovel to see if they could dig their way out, that would have been my first inclination when encased inside of a giant bubble.
You can stream Under The Dome exclusively on Amazon Instant Video, free for Prime members.

Pretty Little Liars: C’mon, the girls really saw the faces of Allison and Melissa in those masks? That is even less believable than a bird that memorized a phone number from over a year ago. And why is Toby still around, they should have just left him dead in the woods. He cannot act and his character serves no purpose, really all the boyfriends are fairly useless on this show and just seemed to be jammed in because every show has to have a love story attached to I no matter how lame and unnecessary it is.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Hero: This show seems to be changing its rules on the fly more often than The Voice. So now the Hero’s Challenge is worth twice as much, but you can take half that and vote yourself out. But if you lose, you are gone. But if you do not take the cash, you can go back to the penthouse and vote someone out. Alrighty. And does that make anyone voted out ineligible to win the big prize at the end? By my math, if that I the case and they dump one contestant every episode until the end of the season, that will leave five contestants left at the end. I cannot believe after just crushing Shaun and Athena for taking money, everyone was just blasé this week at Darnell taking the money. As for the Hero’s Challenge I was surprised at just how hard it was. I laughed when The Rock said he had forty minutes to swim a mile. I could crawl a forty minute mile. I guess doing it against a current in the ocean is a bit harder.
You can download The Hero on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 6/23/13

Mad Men: Oh my god! They killed Kenny!!! Oh wait, never mind, he just got Cheneyed. Yeah I would want off that account too. I do not see how anyone can get hard feelings if you leave after getting shot in the face. And Don was really on point this week, giggling like a baby, saving, then humiliating Ted, gets caught nailing a neighbor by Sally last week and this week she ships herself off to boarding school. I wonder how long until he asks Megan to wear that wig in bed. But I was really disappointed that Bob Benson juts turned out to be another Don Draper, but possibly gayer. I wonder if there s another shoe to drop. And I do not mean the heavily rumor that he is the love chick of Don and the hooker from the flashback earlier in the season. But that still was not more disappointing that the unnecessary return of Creepy Glen. That had to have been the worst choreographed fight scene ever put to film.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: Ouch, Daphne really looked hurt when Regina told her not to clean up because she was “a guest.” And it only got worse when she caught the Vasquez clan dancing together at the end of the episode. I have a feeling she will be taking out that frustration on the tennis court this season.
You can stream recent episodes on Switched At Birth on iTunes.

The Voice: I skipped out on the show after the egregious elimination of Caroline Glaser but tuned into the finale because I figured she would pop back up and of course the awesomeness of Bob Seger and the first live performance from Cher in over a decade which turned out to be the worst live performance since the Britney Spears VMA debacle. The finale was pretty befuddling; I get Danielle Bradbery, not the greatest voice but was always in my Top Ten Power Rankings this season and rates very high on the likeability scale. But how did the other two turn out to be The Swon Brothers and Michelle Chamuel made it that far? I thought Michelle benefited from being on the worst team and would not have even made the Live Shows if she was on any other team, instead she benefits from being the anti-country choice this season. While The Swon Brother lucked through on Blake’s Team taking a spot in the Live Shows that should have gone to Caroline, Savannah Berry, Grace Askew, or even Luke Edgemon. I thought for sure after the first Live Show, they would be one of the first three acts voted out with Josiah Hawley and Garrett Gardner.

After the lackluster second season, I was inspired to write 10 Ways to Fix The Voice and two seasons later the implemented four of them the next season and three more this season (well Shakira was closer to a “rock” judge than they have had before but they came close to banning Adele, the only person who sang one of her songs did not get any of the coaches to turn around for her and I do not recall anyone annoyingly screaming “I Love You” while Adam was talking). Even the sob stories seemed to be toned down this season. Still season four was the worst season yet, I stopped watching season two just short of the finale, but was out this season after the first live shows. But unlike after season two, the fixes are easier and really only need three.

1) Tweak the Voting System Again: One of my biggest complains about season two was how Chris Mann made it into the finals when Lindsey Pavao crushed him on the iTunes Charts every week (and to a lesser extent RaeLynn and Jermaine Paul). In season three they introduced the iTunes Bonus where if an artist reached the top ten on the iTunes Overall Chart their iTunes votes would be multiplied by 10. Trevin Hunte advanced further than his iTunes sales would have suggested but for the most part I think every week but one where the lowest selling artists were voted off.

Fast forward to the first live show of this season, Caroline and Sarah Simmons are the only two artists to have all four of the songs enter the iTunes Overall chart after they were released, that week Caroline was the only contestant to have all four of her songs on the Overall Chart at the same time (to put this into perspective, no one else this season did this until they started releasing two songs per week a month later), all four of which were higher than Josiah’s highest charting song. Despite being the two best selling contestants overall up to that point, Caroline and Sarah ended up in Adam’s bottom two while Judith Hill inexplicitly went through even though she was over fifty spots behind them on the iTunes charts. It did not help there were voting irregularities that week where they threw out all the internet and texting votes. That meant there were a lot of phone calls for Judith to make up the difference. I can buy if someone is within ten or so spots on the iTunes charts can overcome someone by other methods but not fifty spots, especially during a week with “voting irregularities”.

So the show really needs to tweak the voting system again to put more say into the hands of the music buying public because those are the people who are going to buy the albums after the show, not the people who just vote on the internet for an hour trying to stuff the ballots. Even though I like the iTunes voting, it is a bit arbitrary and clunky. I believe there was a time last season where Amanda Brown sold more copies of a song than a previous week but it was the previous song got the iTunes bonus because it just so happened to chart higher despite selling less songs. They could maybe change that to a fixed number like say if you sell over 25,000 songs you get the bonus. Or if they are really like having it fixed to the iTunes Charts, expand the iTunes Bonus to something like top ten gets a x10 multiplier, top 25 gets a x5 multiplier, top 50 gets a x2 multiplier. The more the show lets the music buying public decide who advances and wins, the better chance that artists has of becoming successful and more credible the show is.

2) Make Sure the Live Shows Are More Diverse: If you remember back to the first Live Show, America saved only country and RnB artists (again Michelle was extremely lucky to be on a team with only one RnB sing and no country) while the rockers, pop singers, latin, and folk artists were stuck hoping their coach saved them. Country ended up overtaking the RnB singers with four of the last six contestants. In comparison, here is the breakdown of the final four contestants’ genres of the four seasons:

Season One: pop dude, indie-folk chick, pop rocker chick, and classic rock chick
Season Two: RnB dude, rocker chick, folk-rock dude, opera dude
Season Three: pop rock chick, rocker dude, blue eyed soul man, RnB dude
Season Four: three country singers and whatever Michelle was supposed to be

Really last season, each team was super diverse with the exception of Christina and her Mini-Me’s (who were not surprisingly quickly eliminated). Blake even said he only wanted to take one country singer last season because he did not want them to siphon each other’s votes. But that is not clearly the case. When fans of Danielle were done voting for her, they would then vote for Amber. Then the Swon Brothers. Then Holly Tucker creating a coattail effect where all the country artists benefited from being alike. I guess it would be easy to limited people to only ten votes per person per method (with the exception of iTunes) where voters would have to chose if they want to give all ten votes to Danielle, or if they want to go 3-3-2-2 to Danelle, Amber, Swons, and Holly.

Of course it would be much easier just to tell the coaches to make sure they have a more diverse team next season because have two genres takes up over half of the live shows (nine of the sixteen spots) really hurt the quality of the show. It is very telling that as the Live Shows went along the ratings in the much coveted 18-49 demo crashed and burned, breaking record lows multiple times during the Live Shows yet the overall viewers stayed about the same, and even had the most watched finale. This says that the audience got really old really quick over the course of the season. It almost turned into American Idol overnight which was helped by being dominated by two genres that skew old and this season of The Voice going against a season of American Idol where even the most loyal viewers were jumping ship to avoid Nicki Minaj. To think how much more entertaining and diverse the top twelve could have been had it included Caroline, Luke, Jess Kellner, and Mary Miranda instead of eight country and RnB singers.

3) Put a Moratorium on Songs: Thankfully were not stuck listening to singers trying to out-Adele Adele this season, but there were still way too many recycled songs. Case in point when Judith sang Feeling Good. Not only had the song already been performed this season during the blind auditions, but it has been performed four times on the show over the past year. That is overkill. I Have Nothing has been performed each of the last three seasons. There really needs to be a moratorium on singing a song on back-to-back season if not a full year ban. It is time for the song selection to be more diverse. Seriously people, Tom Petty is one of the greatest artists of all time but if you watch the show you would think his only songs were American Girl and Won’t Back Down, both repeat song this season. I would make an exception if the singers switch up the arrangement. Like how Seven Nation Army was performed each of the last three seasons too (I would have thought if there was on The White Stripes song that would become a standard it would have been We’re Going to Be Friends), but Jamar Rogers did a more straight forward version while Melanie Martinez did a folky version and Garrett Gardner went with a reggae arrangement. But that is the only exception. I am sure The Voice has a couple thousand, if not million, songs available to license, they should not be recycling songs so often, especially in the same season.  If you need help selecting some new song, my services are available.

The show took my advice after the second season and the third turned out to be the best yet. It was just followed by the worse of the four. But these are easy fixes that the show really needs to implement especially when it comes to a diverse Live Show where the show quickly became American Idol this season. And if The Voice does not make these easy fixes, it will quickly go the way of American Idol where old people with their telephones determine who advances and the boring winner if forgotten by the time the next season starts up.


You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can buy my ten favorite performances this season with the widget at right.

Pretty Little Liars: I love Hanna, where all the other girls are calculating and plotting, Hanna just does not care. Her best moment was last season when she confronted Jenna about being able to see. Her confronted the rival swimmer was not as epic because I am still not entirely sure who she is. It seems like just through that character in because neither Jenna nor Melissa were available for stretches of time. But Hanna just went ahead and put her on blast with little to no evidence. Love it. Then randomly she just takes Allison’s old parrot just because it may remember something Allison could have said two years ago. But I really hope they do not wait until the end of the season to reveal that Allison is still alive, it just seems inevitable at this point, so why drag it out.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Hero: Everyone was really altruistic the first week, but after Shaun screwed over his team last week, the floodgates were opened this week with both Athena and Darnell taking the money. We have to wait until next week to see if Darnell actually tells anyone he took the money or lie and say he lost. But the house really crushed Athena unfairly. When Patty turned down the offer (by a hilariously disguised The Rock), I thought she was an idiot. Then more people turned him down until Athena said yes. Personally I would have said yes in a heartbeat and would not have begrudged anyone who would have. During the first two episodes I really did not have any rooting interest in any of the contestants, but after seeing everyone gang up on her unfairly, I will probably vote for Athena at the end of the season.
You can download The Hero on iTunes.

Hannibal: I have longed assumed the season would end with either Hannibal or will in jail. A great finale that tied (quite literally) everything in the season together. Cannot wait until next season to see how long until Will is able to clear his name and at the same time prove that it was Hannibal that set him up. Complicating things is that Hannibal knows that Will knows. Hopefully people will be able to find the show in its second season so there will be a third.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Hannibal on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 6/16/13

Falling Skies: Wow, that baby is extremely creepy. And why is it taunting Anne? I am guessing she is not really hallucinating or gone crazy and we are seeing her crazy. So why is it advancing faster than normal and only revealing her skills to Anne? Is she really an alien like Anne suggests? Is it an alien implant? Did Karen or the mole do something to her? Speaking of the mole, I did not want to theorize in my preview of the season for the spoilerphobes out there, but I am guessing that it will not turn out to be the obvious choice Hal. I have a feeling it will turn out t be Gloria Rubin’s character.
You can download Falling Skies on iTunes.

Mad Men: Sally really needs to stop going into the city. This week she catches her dad “comforting” a neighbor with his man region. Add that to the time she caught her step-grandmother “comforting” Rodger with her mouth, her black grandma who robbed her, the Martin Luther King riots, and, um, when she became a woman at the museum. And to think, I spent most of this episode thinking I would spend all my time talking about how they actually brought up Peggy and Pete’s love child for the first time in four or five seasons.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: It was only a matter of time before the daughters started migrating to their original parents now the question is who will get jealous first? Probably Regina, if there is someone to be offended, it will be Regina.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Switched at Birth on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: The writers are just taunting me at this point. I was cheering when they were finally leading Mr. Fitz away in handcuffs, something that should have happened back in the first season. But of course that was just a fracking dream sequence. But at least the writers admitted how wrong their relationship is, a felony in the state, and acceptance is the first step. And I would just like to go ahead and predict Paige will not be making it out of the season alive. C’mon, like A will really let her take Emily to California. She is totally going to die.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Hannibal on iTunes.

The Hero: We have our first temptation of the season. And so we can basically write him off as the winner of the season because I do not see America voting for someone who sabotages his team. If they were stupid enough to cast me on the show, I would seriously consider sitting my cast mates down and say I believe in us, if we are ever offered a temptation, take it because I believe that we can overcome any obstacle. But if we do not complete the challenge in time, whoever took the money has to pledge $10,000 to the Red Cross they would have gotten if we won. It is really a win-win for everyone except for whoever would end up winning the whole thing who would probably have a much smaller pot because of all the loss challenges.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

Hannibal: I have long thought that we would not be seeing Abigail Hobbs next season, she would either move back to Minnesota, college, or would be dead. Sadly it was the latter. I usually do not believe someone is actually dead until I see a body, and sometimes not even then, but I believe that Hannibal will live up to his word and kill her just to make Will look even guiltier. Sad because I found her the most interesting character on the show. Even more sad is that Hannibal (presumably) killed Georgia in the same episode. I was really hoping Georgia and Abigail would become roommates in the second episode.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Hannibal on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On: 6/8/13

Quote of the Week: Sometimes all we can do is watch. (Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier, Hannibal)

Song of the Week: Harper Valley P.T.A. – Jeannie C. Riley (Mad Men)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: I Watched the CMT Awards Again This Year: Kristen Bell has gotten me to watch some horrible crap like Heroes, Pulse, Burlesque, but the worse of them all was the Country Music Television Awards last year. I audibly groaned when it was announced she would host again this year, but something surprising happened this year, it was actually enjoyable. For some reason Lenny Kravitz of all people kicked off the show, the opening skit was funny, some random country band did a solid version of The Chain originally by Fleetwood Mac (when a guitarist was raiding out of the floor, I thought, oh goodness, they really got Lindsey Buckingham to do the solo, unfortunately it turned ou just to be Keith Urban), Kristen sang Human league, the was the completely random presenting team of Ed Sheeran and Lisa Marie Pressley, the dude from Nashville got to present with a chick in a see-thru dress (and humorously tried not to get caught on camera peaking at her), and the performances were by artists I actually like: Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert, the dude from Hootie & The Blowfish, Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood. There was even a couple good unintentional funny segments with Cassadee Pope (she sings two country songs on The Voice and apparently she is country now) and her hyping Twitter. Is 100,000 tweets over the course of a three hour telecast really that impressive? But this year's CMT Awards was better than any Video Music Awards show from the past decade. Which I guess really does not say much.

Preview Picture of the Week:

Mother and Child Divided, Switched at Birth Monday at 8:00 on ABC Family

Mad Men: After about four episodes, we finally get a name: Sterling Cooper and Partners. And who would have guessed that Pete would be the only one to sniff out the “and Partners” alternative motives. I thought when Pete went to creative after the meeting he was going to try and steal Ginsberg and start his own agency. But I wonder if we are in for a repeat of season three where Sterling Cooper Draper and Pryce move in the middle of the night and start a new agency after a hostile takeover from the British with the dude from Veronica Mars taking over for the dude from The Nanny. And I am a bit disappointed that Jane’s cousin was the token person from the agency’s past that was at the Hollywood party and not the new Star Trek writer Paul Kinsey.
You can download Mad Men on iTunes.

The Voice: Ever since Caroline Glaser was speciously voted off, I swore off this season, but every Monday I still log onto iTunes to see what the contestants were singing to see if I should have a change of heart, but never do. This Monday was actually worse, not only is two-thirds of the singers left bland country artists, but the two non-country artists performed songs by country artists. And then I saw Amber Carrington would be singing I Remember You. Wait, what? The Skid Row song? That was not enough to get me to turn in but I definitely checked out the video the next day her country-fied version of the classic power ballad (which was number 80 on my list of The Greatest Power Ballads of All Time) was as awesomely bad as I expected.


You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.

Hannibal: The puzzle of the first season is coming along nicely. There was a great dichotomy of Dr. Chilton being accused of planting the idea of Dr. Gideon being the Ripper in his patient’s mind when Dr. Lecter has been pulling Will’s strings this season. Will and to an extent Dr. Gideon thought that the Ripper would kill Gideon, but Gideon is beneath Hannibal, he just had Will do it for him. Brilliant. I assume that within the final two episodes, Will will start realizing what Hannibal is doing.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Hannibal on iTunes.


Free Download of the Week: Family Reunion – Wu-Tang Clan (Band Camp): The Wu is back to make you go boom boom like you’re Super Cat. The new song features verses from Masta Killer, Method Man, and Ghostface Killah and samples The O’Jay’s song of the same name. You can get the song for free, it is a name your own price so you can pay for it if you like. But if you know you are going to buy the album when it comes out, you can get the song now for free and not get charged later when you grab the full album later this summer.

Deal of the Week: Albums as Low as $2.99: Get deeply discounted album from Fleetwood Mac, Jessie Ware, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Very Best of Prince.


New Album Release of the Week: Damage - Jimmy Eat World

New DVD Release of the Week: The Newsroom: The Complete First Season

Video of the Week: While watching the trailer for Getaway, you can almost hear the pitch meeting:

Executive 1: We need to find a way to capitalize on the success of the Taken franchise.
Executive 2: How about we combine it with Fast & Furious and make the lead a race car driver.
Executive 1: Great, except all we can get for the Liam Neeson role is Ethan Hawke, he will need someone to help bring people to the theater, preferably the younger demographic.
Executive 2: How about one of the Disney girls who are trying to shed their goodie-goodie image and make her a carjacker who, for some silly reason, has to stay in the car.
Executive 1: Great, let’s get a screenwriter on this.

And of course the twist at the end will be Selena Gomez was working for the disembodied voice the whole time and right after she gets paid and walks away leaving Hawke to fend for himself, has a change of conscious and comes back to save Hawke and his wife and promptly gets adopted by them in the epilogue.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Pretty Little Liars, Tuesday at 8:00 on ABC Family: Pretty Little Liars fluctuates every ten episodes or so from guilty pleasure to just plain guilt watching. It seems like we are heading into a period of the former after the season finale where we learned that Alison was Red Coat (sort of, it could have been all a dream). And what is in Waldon’s trunk? I am guessing that since the Liars are all decked out in black in the promos there is probably a body in there but whose? Waldon? Cece? Could it be Melissa?