57 Channels and Only This Is On - 12/9/12

Once Upon a Time: When Snow White and Emma jumped into the portal, I thought, “Wait, are they really going to leave Sleeping Beauty and Mulan in a deserted world with Cora?” Seems kind of rude. Granted Cora and Hook ended up finding their way to Storybrooke so the duo is basically alone with a bunch of ogres, giants, maybe Frankenstein’s monster and the lifeless body of the Prince.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Revenge: I realize this week that I liked the show much better when Emily was taking down people one week at a time than all this cooperate espionage that just goes way over my head this season. I do not really care about the British dude and they literally doubled down on the bar takeover storyline by bringing in another brother who does nothing but just repeats what his brother said. And the Initiative is such an evil monolith they hang out in a room that looks like the Injustice League lair.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: I hate it when shows think they are going to be all clever by not starting an episode which what is expected (in this case Rick storming Woodbury) but instead introducing unknown characters. But I guess whenever introduce a new black dude; the old black dude has to be killed off.

As Rick was leaving Woodbury, I was disappointed because the whole season seemed to be building of a confrontation between the sheriff and The Governor. Then a couple minutes later Michonne sticks a shard of glass in The Governor’s eye and all the disappointment disappeared. I guess we may have to wait until the season finale to see the Rick / Governor showdown.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Homeland:Since Abu Nazir is the only thing keeping Brody from a Quinn delivered bullet, how much more in trouble can he get for essentially killing the Vice (and possibly future) President? I doubted how Brody could make it out alive during the first season, and though he did, it is hard to think of possibilities of him making it to season three. But does Carrie overlook his part in the Walden assassination because it meant saving her life and just not tell anyone? But as awesome as the opening and closing scenes were, why is the CIA no longer tapping his phone? I know sometimes the show has potholes so big you can drive a semi truck through them, but this is pretty big. Of course Nazir was going to continue with his plan even if a bunch of his lieutenants got captured.

The Voice: I knew it was not going to be a good week when on the results show, the two people I thought (hoped) would go home were the first two saved. And somehow Amanda Brown, who have the two best performances of the week (well solo performance, the Nicholas David / Melanie Martinez duet may have been the most bizarrely beautiful thing ever), was sent packing. Not only that she got voted off right after out-singing Cassadee on Breakaway and even was better than Ne-Yo on his own song.

A lot has been made of the teen girl voting bloc ruining singing shows, but after MacKenzie Bourg went home after the first week of voting, I think it is the bored housewife that is keeping these bland singers around. The finals should be Cassadee and Nicholas, but I have a feeling it will end up being Terry and Trevin. But I guess this final four is still better than last season, but anything without Chris Mann (who inexplicably made over Lindsey Pavao thanks probably to the previously mentioned bored housewife voting bloc) is an upgrade.

Final Four Power Rankings

1. Nicholas David
2. Cassadee Pope
3. Terry McDermott
4. Trevin Hunte



You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Voice by clicking on the artist’s name.

Go On: I am a bit disappointed we did not get more time at the Holiday / End of the World Party. I would have been content with a bottle episode at just the party.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Go On on iTunes.

Parenthood: I cannot remember much of what happened in this week’s episode because all I can remember is the Promo Monkeys daring to suggest Kristina may die next episode. They better be seriously misleading because I do not want to spend all of Tuesday night crying.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: Of course Jax was not going to let Pope kill Tig especially when Pope was responsible for Opie’s death. The only question was how he was going to get out of it. Apparently it meant setting up Clay. So the question to ponder until next season is how is Clay going to avoid the bounty on his head because you know the show is not going to let Clay die unless it is at the hands of Jax.
You can download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: Philippines: Stupid Malcolm had to just go and win Immunity. Very few things are more entertaining than watching someone get voted out with Immunity in their pocket. I have a feeling he would because all the talk before the challenge was about the blindside which always means something would happen to screw it up. Instead they end up voting out… um… who was that guy who got voted up? Did he sneak into the game with the rest of the Loved Ones and hoped no one would notice?
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download Survivor: Philippines on iTunes.

Subugatory: Ryan acting like a wild animal was way too funnier than it had any right to be.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Nashville: Way to ruin the proposal Promo Monkeys. Okay, of course fake-Tim Tebow was obviously going to say yes. But it is a little weird that the show stole the Fresh Prince of Bel Air plotline from the time Will got fake married (officiated hilariously by Jazz) just so he could have sex with a chick waiting for marriage. Also Gunner is an idiot, I would totally choose the much hotter Hailey over the whiney Scarlett.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Nashville on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I cannot believe Sheldon did not sing Soft Kitty to Amy.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 12/8/12

Quote of the Week: “I'm not destroying lives, Amanda, I'm righting wrongs. (Emily Thorne, Revenge)

Song of the Week: High Hope – Glen Hansard (Parenthood)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: Debt Ceiling Crisis: The democratic ran on taxing the rich and painted the Republicans as pandering to the rick at the expense of the Middle Class. So what is the first thing the Republicans do after the election, so no increase on the top two percent even if that means letting all the taxes increase, even on the middle class. Seriously Republicans, you really need to get your stuff together by 2016 unless you want another four to eight years of President Clinton, and that is certainly something I do not want to see because as we learned from the Bushes, the sequel is always significantly worse than the original.

Preview Picture of the Week:


Free Download of the Week: Rising Stars of 2013 Sampler

Deal of the Week: R&B and Classic Soul MP3 Albums for just $2.99: A lot of good ones here including greatest hits packages from Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, James Brown, Sam Cook as well from contemporary artists like Amy Winehouse, and just in time for the holidays, Christmas albums from Boyz II Men, The Temptations, and the twenty-five song A Motown Christmas (which comes to about twelve cents per song).


New Album Release of the Week: Music of Nashville Soundtrack

New DVD Release of the Week: Mankind: The Story of All of Us

Video of the Week: Ray Donavan starring Live Schreiber and Masters of Sex starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan (yes, Lizzy Caplan is starring in a series entitled Masters of Sex, the Mayans better not be right) do not debut until some indeterminate date next year, my best guess is one or both will begin whenever the next Shameless season comes to an end sometime around March, but Showtime is giving you a first look. A first look at Lizzy Caplan in Masters of Sex. In the immortal words of Bart Scott: Can’t wait.


Next Week Pick of the Week: Survivor, Wednesday and Sunday at 8:00 on CBS: After a couple failed experiments (Redemption Island, One World) Survivor went back a more tradition fame, except three tribes for the first time is a long time. They also brought back three contestants who were medically evacuated (of course there was one of those this season) and it turned out to be one of the best seasons in recent memories. We are now down to three hours left (and a reunion show) and five contestants; two separate alliances with Abi, who was once aligned with Lisa and Skupin) sitting in the middle. Will Lisa finally get to blindside Malcolm? Will Malcolm over think things and give his Immunity Idol to Denise? Can Abi somehow weasel her way into the Final Council? Should make for an interesting final two episodes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On 12/2/12

Quote of the Week: Believe it or not I’m your best friend in the world right now. (Quinn, Homeland)

Song of the Week: Hello – Lionel Richie (Suburgatory)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: iTunes 11 Sucks Massively: If there is one mantra that I live by, it was uttered by the great philosopher Garth Adler in the seminal Wayne's World movie: I fear change. And I really hate unnecessary change. Yet from the New Darrin to New Coke companies have continued to try to fix things that were not broken including the latest version of iTunes. I understand the sprucing up of your look, but iTunes claims the new version of the program makes thing simpler but many things are actually made harder, most notably the new search function. Previously whenever you typed something in the search box, it limited your library to songs, artists and albums. Now there is a drop box actually making it harder to find what you are looking for.

And then there are the parts they erroneously left out of the new version. I am furious that the DJ function did not make the upgrade. That was how I listened to my library. I also do not like that you cannot display duplicates anymore, I download a lot of crap, so that was nice thing to have to delete and clean up songs I already have. And for some reason they added songs from the Cloud to my library even though I have never actually used the iTunes Cloud before. iTunes even managed to make the podcast page look more cluttered. Worst of all it is slow, whenever I press “ok” it takes 5-20 seconds to actually do anything. I am not happy. Hopefully this will all get fixed with the next update, until I will probably use Spotify to listen to my Holiday and Best of 2012 playlists.

Preview Picture of the Week:


Revenge: Oh snap, just in case you did not realize how evil Victoria is, she totally set up her own mother. On Thanksgiving. Although it was a little weird that Charlotte was absent at the dinner (granted I did miss the first couple minutes because a local kid was kidnapped). But the Stowaway was a completely worthless flashback even if it set up that the evil dude who bought into the bar is the song of the evil dude who extorted the bar who has come back for… revenge. Actually I did not really care that much about Nolan’s CFO or how Emily met the British dude.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

Homeland: I had this fear that Quinn just showed up this season so they had someone to be the mole from last season that I did not really care about. Instead it turned out to be part of a super-secret FBI team specializing in killing terrorists (even if they are working for them). I also thought when I learned Mike would be staying over that he would end up hooking up with Mrs. Brody until I realized she would not actually do that with her kids in the other room. Oops. Apparently she did not care. It was like episode one all over again, Mrs. Brody gets naked, Dana is a brat, and Chris is just hanging out. Now the question is what is Abu Nazir’s contingency plan? Or was this his masterplan the whole time or just a diversion?

The Voice: Far and away the most shocking and noteworthy item on The Voice this week were learning Bill Withers was still alive. Who knew? Since Rick Rubin started the craze of producing long forgotten singers like Johnny Cash (also see Jack White/Wanda Jackson, Damon Alburn/Bobby Womack, Tim Armstrong/Jimmy Cliff, Jeff Tweedy/Mavis Staples) I really hope Cee-Lo uses this opportunity to produce a new Bill Withers album which would be his first in over twenty-five year. Way too long.

Really the only other interesting parts of the episode was when Adam Levine went off on The Roxy, Melanie Martinez’s ex-boyfriend (while she looked on in horror), but not Dez Duron who’s performance deserved it the most. A lackluster performance week where everyone managed to be worse than the previous week (with the exception of Trevin) so as part of this week’s Power Ranking, I have made some suggestions of songs to sing.

1. Nicholas David – I was going to suggest Donny Hathaway, but I am about to complain about other singers being complacent, so instead of another seventies soul song, since his Huey Lewis cover was the most bizarrely awesome performance of the season, maybe try the nineties version of The News and sing Hold My Hand by Hootie and the Blowfish.

2. Cassadee Pope – She had her breakout performance last week with an emotional country ballad, so why not try it again with Colder Weather by Zac Brown Band, a song she can actually relate to on multiple levels because not only has she done a lot of touring, so has her boyfriend.

3. Amanda Brown – I’m surprised no has tackled Thinkin Bout You by Frank Ocean this season, and as Amanda showed during Dream On, she definitely can hit that falsetto part. Just do not turn it into a rock song. In fact go the other way and make it just Amanda and an acoustic guitar.

4. Melanie Martinez – She has done pretty much somewhat obscure alt-rock (or as obscure as a song that gets played in a commercial about as often as political ads over the last three months) and old time blues songs, how about combining them with Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth With Money In My Hand by the Primitive Radio Gods (which of course samples BB King).

5. Terry McDermott – I originally thought the Scottish singer should take something out the Irish songbook of U2, but how about bringing him in the new millennium with "45" by The Gaslight Anthem.

6. Trevin Hunte – Trevin tried contemporary music last week and failed miserably and when he went back to old emotional RnB it just started to sound tired. So it is time to think outside the box like Something to Believe In by Poison.

And without Dez Duron, Christina Aguilera gets her third straight last place finish. Hopefully Shakira has a better ear for good singers. I also laughed at Christina assertion that Chris Mann is the most successful contestant ever on The Voice. I would like to see her numbers because Javier Colon, Dia Frampton, and Xenia all charted higher than Chris and he is the only one from season two that has released an album yet, so really no competition . Maybe this is way she always performs so bad on the show because she is completely delusional.


You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Voice by clicking on the artist’s name.

2 Broke Girls: How could do an episode with all that blood splatter and not make a Dexter reference? Sure they are too poor for premium cable (I do not even remember seeing a television in their apartment), but I am sure Max has figured how to steal it by now.

Survivor: Philippines: I am actually starting to root for Abi-Maria. I got a laugh when she managed to win Immunity and the alliances had to turn on each other. Though has no one ever watched the show before? Of course Probst was going to sell some sort of clue. It is really not a good sign when Abi is the smartest player out there. So you have to wonder if everyone is dumb enough to fall for her fake Immunity Idol.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download Survivor: Philippines on iTunes.

Nashville: It is clear that they need to get Rayna and Juliette in the same room at the same time more often because watching those two go out it passive aggressively is the most entertaining part of the show (and I think this is the first time they crossed path since the first episode). Maybe they should go out on tour together.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Nashville on iTunes.


Free Download of the Week: We Three Kings - Rod Stewart featuring Mary J. Blige (iTunes)

Deal of the Week: 100 Albums for $5: This month’s five dollar albums include albums from The Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Lauryn Hill, and Bruce Springsteen.


New Album Release of the Week: The Complete Columbia Album Collection

New DVD Release of the Week: The Dark Knight Trilogy (Batman Begins / The Dark Knight / The Dark Knight Rises)

Video of the Week: I am beginning to think that the Pretty Little Liars promos are more interesting than the actual show because I got more excited watching this that I have the last season or two.


Next Week Pick of the Week: The Walking Dead, Sunday at 9:00 on AMC: I figured last week it would take an entire episode for Rick and his crew to make it to Woodbury and that turned out to be the case after a brief detour into the den of some paranoid dude. But they got there which should lead to an explosive mid-season finale when Rick will (presumably) go head to head with the Governor and (again presumably) get the long overdue Dixon family reunion which I have a feeling will not be all that friendly. And who knows, maybe Andrea will finally get killed off.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 11/18/12

Once Upon a Time: Is this the first time seeing the King in Storybrooke? I remember not seeing and thinking he must had died in the fairytale world.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Revenge: So this was Emily’s grand plan for Mason Treadwell: set him up to make it look like he set up Conrad Grayson so he would be convicted for a crime he did not commit (much like her father) and he will admit to it if she promised to come clean after her master plan has been executed where she will then admit to the killing of the white haired man and give him the exclusive story. What? Unless she plans for Mason to also die in prison much like her father. But would it not have been much easier, even if it were less poetic) to just let Amanda bash his skull in?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: With the new season, they have really up its, Did That Really Just Happened moments be it impromptu leg amputations with an ax, or c-section deliveries with no medication. But they may have out done themselves this episode with the Governor brushing his zombiefied daughter’s hair, the zombie Thunderdome, and the zombie who apparently ate Lori whole. It will take a while for me to decide which scene grossed me out the most.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Homeland: Oh snap! The warden totally called out Saul for his beard! But I was extremely disappointed that Saul (and the guards) let Eileen alone. As soon as Saul left the room, I screamed at the screen, “Do not leave her alone with the wine bottle!” Sure I was wrong with the suicide method as it looked like she somehow killed herself with Saul’s glasses (because who does not walk around with an extra pair of reading glasses that make anyone see well?), but the sediment remained. And that was not the only false ending for the episode, just when you think Dana and Brody were going to report the hit and run, Carrie stops them at the last minute. Ugg. I do have a feeling Dana will be calling a press conference sometime in the next episode just to screw everything up. One last thing, Estes is the worst baby sitter ever. He lets Brody talk along in the sables with the party host and then sneak off to meet Carrie.

The Voice: I have joked a couple times this season that the producers read my post 10 ways to Fix The Voice, but after this week I am now convinced that they did. Previously they have implemented my suggestions to breeze through some Battle Round performances by montage, expand the Live Rounds (there will be eight performance episodes up from six last season and four the inaugural season), more Blind Auditions, they initiated The Steal, banned Adele (only one song this season, now they need to ban Katy Perry for next season), and got rid of the Product Placement I Refuse to Acknowledge (unless they pay me) Lounge (granted it got replaced by the Product Placement I Refuse to Acknowledge Skybox). They have even cut down on the annoying crowd screaming a little bit (though not completely). That is seven, and this week they added an eighth suggestion I made.

Cason Daly announced yet another new rule, that any artist who reaches the top 10 on the iTunes charts will have those votes multiplied by ten. Of course anyone who reaches the top 10 (which no one has done this season) probably is not in trouble of being voted out anyway, but I like the new wrinkle. iTunes success is a better indicator of future success but it accounts for the least amount of votes because people may make ten phone calls and vote ten times over the internet (or more with phony e-mail accounts) But no one, expect maybe family members, are buying ten sons on iTunes. The Top 10 may have been to altruistic and may should had gone with Top 25 instead. Apparently they quickly realize that the new rule did not do much (only two songs cracked the top 50 and not even close to the top 10) because the very next day they announced all music bought on iTunes this year will count for the finalist. Here is the Power Rankings for the top 10 and some thoughts on their performances:

The Voice Top 10 Power Rankings

1. Cassadee Pope – Cassadee has been number two a couple times on my Power Rankings and finally found herself this week with her best performance since her Blind Audition. Though after five straight pop-rock songs I would like to see her get out of her comfort zone next week even if it is taking a song from another genre and making it pop-rock.

2. Nicholas David – It is about time someone on one of these karaoke shows gave Huey Lewis & The News his proper due. I really liked when Nicholas went back into his Barry White voice halfway through the performance.

3. Trevin Hunte – Someone pointed out to me that this was the second week doing a Michael Bolton song (sure When a Man Loves a Woman is really a Percy Sledge that Bolton covered) and he loses some points for that. Plus this make have been his weakest performance. Much like Cassadee, Trevin needs to branch out and soon.

4. Amanda Brown – Amanda went bold last week and knocked it out of the park, she went big again this week, but did not quite reach the same heights.

5. Terry McDermott – I could not help but think back to Amanda last week who also closed the show with a seventies stadium anthem, but where Amanda nailed the notes at the end, Terry noticeably could not hit the signature high notes in More than a Feeling where Brad Delp original seemed to go higher and higher.

6. Cody Belew – Last week I thought he did a very Elvis Presley performance of One More Try and did a very Elvis performance of The Best this week. Maybe he should just do an Elvis song next week.

7. Sylvia Yacoub – Every time Sylvia showed up during the earlier rounds I thought, she is still on the show? Then she gave the most surprising performance last week, sitting down at the piano. She was back to she is still on the show status after a wobblely performance. Maybe she should had stayed behind the piano instead of having a creepy dude in a white suit on a creepy white piano instead.

8. Bryan Keith – He took a great song full of pathos and self loathing and turned it into a lounge act. Color me unimpressed.

9. Dez Duron – Again, Dez has impeccable taste in music, but his voice is just so boring and bland. He may have made the finals with the old rules, but I am not sure he even makes the top eight under the new system. He definitely should not.

10. Melanie Martinez – Oh Melanie, cool song choice, but I think this will be your last week on the show unless Christina’s final two contestants are eliminated in on swell swoop.

The results show was fairly uninteresting (Cee-Lo’s disco party notwithstanding). Adriana Louise (I wonder if she gets to come back for a Team Christina performance or if she is out of luck because they did not perform this week) and Michaela Paige were clearly on the bottom of the pile. Next week will be about as suspenseful as two by two every twenty minutes someone is saved before Cody and Sylvia get the ax. Maybe they should go back to having the teams battling themselves to be a finalist; those eliminations were much more suspenseful.


You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Voice by clicking on the artist’s name.

How I Met Your Mother: Did we really spend a whole month having all the main characters break up with their significant others? Yeah, the show has officially run out of ideas.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download How I Met Your Mother on iTunes.

Castle: As everyone is moving onto the new found footage craze, the show went back to the ol’ early ’00 documentary footage route. And it was probably for the best.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Go On: Can they please add the hot station mascot to the cast please? Maybe her dad can die and join the support group for more airtime.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Go On on iTunes.

Parenthood: Why is grief the biggest aphrodisiac in Hollywood? It seems like whenever a guy on television show or movie has a lost in his life, the closest female to him is willing to have sex with him the cheer the dude up. Seriously, Drew is talking about his aunt that has cancer which makes his ex-girlfriend, with a college boyfriend, rip off all his clothes. Does this actually happen in real life because I have had a lot of loss and hardship in my life and not once has any chick had sex with me to console me.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: There are so many moving pieces on the chess board this season I have no clue where this season is going. Actually I am not entirely sure if I understand what is actually going on right now. So many deals on the table, double and triple crosses it is hard to keep track.
You can download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: Philippines: When the votes were revealed to be tied 4-4 I knew that Penner would be going home because I figured that Skupin and Blair would vote together. So I was shocked to see Artis go home and even more shocked that it was Skupin that flipped his vote. I thought if only one flipped it would be Blair after being berated by Abi at Tribal. I was also surprised that Malcolm did not play his Idol. You can only bluff once and why hang onto it when everyone know you have it, an you alliance needs the numbers. Either play it for yourself so you do not get blindsided or give it to Penner just in case Skupin did not flip. At any rate, I cannot wait to see Hurricane Abi next week. Between her and Camilla from The Challenge, it is clear these reality shows need to recruit more Brazilian woman to these competition shows.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download Survivor: Philippines on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons: Watching Hunger Games I have to wonder why Survivor ever stopped their gross food challenges. Quality entertainment. But you have to feel bad for CJ, dude somehow managed to beat the behemoth Zach at the physical challenge three out of five times but still went home. And fewer things are more entertaining than a crazy person acting all crazy while shouting, “I not going to make to look like a (expletive deleted) crazy person.”
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons on iTunes.

Last Resort: I do not understand, if someone stole Marcus’s key, why even dock the submarine. Search everyone before coming up for air. And just how many crew members have to be captured before they realize they should travel the island in pairs, or even groups?
You can stream recent episodes on Last Resort on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: I was expecting that the number 43 to not live up to expectation that I was kind of hoping they would leave it unexplained. Yet they managed to come up with two extremely funny ideas, the fake Sheldon looking for life in other dimentions, and the real Sheldon trying to break his own hackeysack record.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Grimm: Even though I hate when episodes, especially episodes before a long break, end with “…To Be Continued” but I did have to laugh the show had a sense of humor enough to add “Sorry” to it.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Grimm on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 11/17/12

Quote of the Week: I got a pretty weak stomach especially when it comes to gross things. In the middle of the intestine is a chunk of fat that big. So it is a (expletive deleted) tube wrapped around fat… and topped with a testicle. (Zach, The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons)

Song of the Week: Pure Imagination – Willy Wonka (2 Broke Girls)

Scene of the Week:


Big News of the Week: More Drama with Army Men Than on Army Wives: To be honest I have tried to avoid the David Petaeus scandal because I am just waiting for the inevitable Lifetime movie to get the full story, but apparently there are sordid e-mails, shirtless pictures, and of course, twins. When will people learn they should not transmit their dirst laundry across the internet because it will always come out eventually. Seriously, I learned this lesson from Vanessa Hudgens five years ago, how could the CIA director not figure that out yet?

Preview Picture of the Week:


Free Download of the Week: Green Hill Christmas Music Sampler

Deal of the Week: 100 Albums for $5: Grab Greatest Hits from James Taylor, Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, and Bill Withers.


New Album Release of the Week: Stronger - Kate Earl

New DVD Release of the Week: The Expendables 2

Video of the Week: This week ABC debuted The Gift of Revenge which had the characters of Revenge (not surprisingly minus the two leads) being led to a party hosted by Nolan for no apparent reason. Okay it turned out to be an extremely long commercial for… um, I do not remember. But it reminded me of the revolutionary “pods” that were going to air instead of commercials which, if I am not mistaken, only lasted a week before they went back to normal commercial breaks. So apparently The CW were just ahead of their times (maybe it is time for a Farmer Takes a Wife reboot). But I wonder just who wrote The Gift of Revenge: the normal Revenge writers? An ad company? Are the ads supposed to be considered cannon? Suburgatory also has its own in show sponsor, which begs the question what is next? Are we going to learn the aliens from The Neighbors are actually the alien race from Halo? Are the doctors of Grey’s Anatomy going to play the kids game Operation?


Next Week Pick of the Week: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Thursday at 9:00 AM on NBC: Thanksgiving morning for me is putting some cinnamon rolls in the oven and turning on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Sure in recent it seems like I know less and less of the performance. Case in point this year: Cody Simpson, Megan & Liz, The Wanted, and Jennette McCurdy. The festivities will also include Carly Rae Jepsen, Flo Rida (because who says turkey more than Flo Rida), Neon Trees, Colbie Caillat, Karmin while the Olympic Gymnastics team, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots will jump on the floats.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 11/11/12

Once Upon a Time: So the due from the start of the season turned out to be Henry’s dad. I figured it was either that or he was going to turn out to be Mr. Gold’s son. But did they really have to wait until the sixth episode to show the guy again? I completely forgot he existed until he popped up on the “previously on” segment. And why exactly are Henry and Sleeping Beauty having shared dreams. I guess we will have to wait until episode twelve (at the earliest) for that answer.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Revenge: So just what is The Initiative up to now? Although I would rather know at this point why exactly they downed that aircraft first. And what exactly is Emily’s end game for Mason Treadwell because he basically has already figured out who she is. Is she going to use him as a pawn or is he going to end up with the White Haired Man?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: Just when you thought the election would cause the most joy this week (at least for the socialists), the show had to go and kill off Lori. And they had to do it very graphically as her baby was cut right out of her as she was left to bleed to death until her son ended her suffering. Ouch. It was about as close as a zombie baby eat its way out as all the fanboys wanted as you could get. I love how the show this season has said, forget plot, forget character growth, let’s just gross everyone out. Oh yeah, T-Dawg died too.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

Homeland: I finally caught up on this season and at the end of last season I thought the show would have been better if Brody either blew himself up or got caught and now that Brody is now a triple agent I am beginning to think I was right. And even though the genesis was a great, Oh Crap moment, I do not really care about the whole privileged boy kills a nobody with Dana being caught in a moral dilemma storyline. But the show continues to keep you on your toes like when the Arab Swat Team (including the nameless dude working with Roya) came in and killed everyone. And that was a big box,

The Voice: Oh America, how could you have gotten things so wrong, but oh so right. Let’s start from least to most surprising (which not so surprisingly is how they were revealed this week). It was pretty obvious that the three that would move on from Team Adam would be Amanda (who gave not only the best performance of the week, but of the whole season), Bryan, and Melanie; even though I thought Melanie would get the America’s vote with Adam saving Bryan. It is nice to see America was not fooled by Melane’s façade and she may not be around much longer (though I bet all of Christina’s team will be gone first).

The America’s Vote for Blake’s Team was obvious wit Cassadee and Terry breezing through. It was mildly surprisingly that Blake went with Michaela over the country girl Liz Davis and the Lou Diamond Philips endorsed Julio Cesar Castillo even though Michaela did have the slightly better performance of the three this week. Which begs the question, what happened to the Last Chance performances? I quite enjoyed those.

Now on to the more shocking results. It was not all that surprising that Sylvia got through by America because she had the standout performance with her piano enhanced version of a Katy Perry song (though I wonder just how much she was playing because I could still her the piano being played when she lifted her hand off the instrument, and could she have picked a song that was not already preformed this season; actually everyone just needs to stop singing Katy Perry on the show period). But I was severely disappointed that America also chose Dez over the much more entertaining De'Borah or one of the hot chicks. Seriously, why is it that the horrible cute boys always get through but never the mediocre hot chicks? And just when you think Christina was going to correct America’s wrong by sending De’Borah through, she picks one of the hot chicks. She did not even pick the better hot chick either. Carson crowed that everyone contestant this week charted on iTunes, but Adriana barely cracked the top 200 on the Pop charts while Devyn was in the top 100. (Laughable, as all twenty of The Voice contestants charted on iTunes, only one from The X-Factor charted on the Top 200.)

Now for the most shocking result of the week, I figured Dez being picked by America was a harbinger that the even less talented but cuter MacKenzie Bourg would also be pushed through by the annoying teen girl faction. Adam even laughably called MacKenzie an “American Idol” after his performance, a not so suitably dig the other show’s penchant for crowning mediocre cute boys who play guitar. Thankfully America ended up picking the best two singers in Trevin and the great but awesomely strange looking Nickolas while Cee-Lo made a rare good decision (granted his Live Show decisions do tend to be much better than his Battle Round decisions in saving Cody. De’Borah may have gone home too soon, but at least we will still have at least one more week of little Bam Bam.

Next week is when the real playoffs begin because for the first time anyone from any team can go home, not just one or two from each team. Ever since the announcement I assumed Team Christina would be the first three out (which makes me wonder if Christina is just a horrible judge of talent or if she sabotaged her team so they would be the first out so she could focus on promoting her new album out this week). Adriana is most; likely first out the door followed by either Dez, unless the teen girls rise up after the loss of MacKenzie, or Sylvia, unless she can pull another performance out like this week. But I have a feeling Christina’s three, along with Michaela, will be the first four out. At any rate, here is my personal Power Rankings of the Top 12:

Top 12 Power Rankings

1. Amanda Brown
2. Nicholas David
3. Trevin Hunte
4. Cassadee Pope
5. Cody Belew
6. Terry McDermott
7. Sylvia Yacoub
8. Michaela Paige
9. Brian Keith
10. Adriana Louise
11. Melanie Martinez
12. Dez Duron

One last thing: did they really air a Tweet from disgraced Senator David Vitter? You know, the family values candidate who got caught paying for prostitutes; and still managed to get reelected after the scandal. And people wonder why everyone hates Congress so much; stupid people in stupid states keep on reelecting stupid people like Vitter. When will people learn we need to vote out all the bums, even if they have your favorite letter next to their name.


You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Voice with the widget at right.

Castle: I was a bit disappointed that during a heavy sci-fi episode they did not bring in more stunt casting other than Principal Snyder. But it was still pretty funny and entertaining at any rate.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Survivor: Philippines: Probst loves talking in hyperbole, but I have to agree that this was one of the biggest mess of a tribal council ever. Occasionally you may have one person lay all the cards on the table as a last gasp, or out of spite at Tribal Council, but this is the first time when almost everyone laid out all their cards. Of course Malcolm pretty much had to confess to having the Idol and he was using it (which he wisely did not), but I was flabbergasted when Probst sarcastically asked if anyone wanted to show theirs only for Abi to comply. Then you had you had two people openly lobbing for voted laying out their plans. And of course Tribal was capped off by a bizarre vote because for some reason Penner voted for Abi instead of Pete like the rest of his alliance. I do not know if he thought the other alliance was voting for Malcolm and Abi would give Pete her Idol and his brilliant vote would end up being the only one that counted or he did it out of spite for his alliance turning on him last week. At any rate, a great episode. I have said it before and I will say it again, Survivor needs to cast many more morons. But the biggest loser of all was Jeff Kent who wanted so bad to make sure he made it further than Penner he made a horrible decision last week and still ended up leaving before Penner. This is why he went on Survivor after baseball instead of becoming a manager.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download Survivor: Philippines on iTunes.

Modern Family: Did no one else notice the awesomely creepy painting of Hayley and Dylan hanging in her dormroom wall?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Modern Family on iTunes.

Subugatory: The show is the funniest on television but the one misstep it takes is the crappy title sequence. Well at least I now that the title is the fault of Tessa’s mother.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Nashville: Is it wrong that I was really enjoyed when Juliet got slapped?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Nashville on iTunes.

The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons: As much a I enjoyed watching San Diego imploding, Brooklyn made a serious tactical error by picking the behemoth on the team to go in. Sure you would think he would not do well in a mental challenge, but that challenge is really only a mental challenge for the female and for the guy it is more about strength and endurance, the behemoth’s strong points. If Brooklyn wanted to send someone home from San Diego home, they should have chosen Frank (who was wise not to volunteer) who I do not think could have made it to the bottom of the tank.
You can download The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons on iTunes.

Last Resort: There are fewer things I have more than dream sequences and hallucinations are just dream sequences when you are awake.
You can stream recent episodes on Last Resort on iTunes.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 11/4/12

Once Upon a Time: After a year of wondering, it turns out Dr. Whale is… Dr. Frankenstein? Alrighty. When he was first introduced as a wizard, I actually thought he would turn out to be the Wizard of Oz (okay, my first thought was, oh goodness, he is not going to be Harry Potter is he) when they talked about his ability to transport to places without magic. So what world exactly does Dr. Frankenstein live in, one where all the classic horror monsters live: Dracula, Wolfman (who I assume would end up being a love interest to Little Red Riding Hood), The Mummy, The Invisible Man. And I know they live in a world where Captain Hook looks like an Abercrombie model who does not think there is such a thing as too much eyeliner, but how can you have Igor without a hunchback?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time on iTunes.

Revenge: I thought for sure Amanda was not going to make it through surgery. I guessed she made it so Mason Treadwell could come back to cause more havoc. Of coutrse if Mason knew what was best for him he would stop snooping because the last time he got on the case, his house burned down. But I wonder if they are going to put a burn scar on Emily’s back even though I am pretty sure we have seen her in a bikini without one.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Walking Dead: The infamous Governor has finally appeared and he and his wall of floating zombie heads lived up to the hype. Of course without television in a zombie apocalypse, what else are you going to stare at hours on end than a wall of illuminated zombie heads? Oh yeah, and Mearle! And I have to wonder if this is the rape camp that Randell came from. I have a feeling Andrea will find out sooner than later.
You can download The Walking Dead on iTunes.

The Voice: Last week I wondered how they could get forty songs into two hours, I assumed they would just montage half of them, it turns out instead they just gave everyone about a minute of screen time with some really bad editing as they cut down songs. And it turns out the much ballyhooed Steal ended up being a major flop. I got a sense when lesser talent got stolen that coaches just did not want someone who would end up replacing an original tram member. Only Adam is taking a saved member to the Live Shows Playoffs even though Caitlin Michele and MarissaAnn clearly won their Knockout pairings.

That was not the only really bad decision from Blake Shelton. Even though he was the best coach when it came to making decisions in the first two seasons, he made some really bad pairings this season decimating his team. After pairing up two of his three best singers in the Battle Rounds with Suzanna Choffel and Lelia Broussard, he then paired his best two in the Knockout Rounds when he put Suzanna up against Cassadee Pope especially when Michaela Paige and Julio Cesar Castillo advanced. When it got down to the final four on his team I thought he was going to pair MarissaAnn with Cassadee and Michaela with Suzanna. Maybe Blake tipped his hand when he said the reason he paired Liz Davis and Gracia Harrison was that he did not want the two to siphoned votes from each other so he was only going to take one, so he took some weak singers (Michaela and Julio) to the Live Shows Playoffs to make it easier for his stronger singers (Cassadee and Terry) to advance.

If anything, the Knockout Round showed just how important song choice is. And for all the dude karaokers out that did not know earlier; never ever ever ever ever sign a Taylor Swift song. Like ever. Dare I say you would be much better off with some indie record that is much cooler than hers. And this week we actually had two dudes try to sing a Taylor Swift song. It was actually a big week for guys singing chick songs, which I rarely think works. Also, do not sing songs but dudes who beat on women. I thought Avery Wilson had a chance to win the whole thing but after a poor song choice, he danced himself off the show.

Even though the Steal ended up flopping because no none but Adam wanted to take them to the Live Shows Playoffs, I do wish they were still allowed one more steal during the Knockout Round. Blake could have finally gotten Caitlyn (assuming she did not reject him for the third time), Adam would finally gotten Gracia, maybe Cee-Lo takes a flyer on Suzanna, and Christina… who knows what stupid decision she would have made. Maybe Kayla Nevarez or steal MarissaAnn back. Really Caitlin was part of my favorite thing that happen this week when she was caught dancing to Nickolas performance.


You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download songs from The Voice with the widget at right.

Castle: Stupid credits. I actually did not think much when I saw Michael Mosley’s name at the beginning of the show, but as the evidence started to mount against Catle, I remembered, oh yeah, he was the serial killer that was never caught and he is totally setting him up. At least he showed up on screen shortly after I figured it out. But seriously, they really need to figure a way to keep the guest stars out of the beginning of the episode.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23: It was nice to see someone finally put fans of The Wire on blast. I will never watch the show because I never want to turn into one of those pretentious jackasses.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 on iTunes.

Sons of Anarchy: After Gemma talked about overcompensating after losing a child, I thought for sure Able was a goner, and was a bit surprised with all the shocking deaths this year they stopped short of killing a kid.
You can download Sons of Anarchy on iTunes.

Survivor: Philippines: I was a big Astros fan back when I actually paid attention to baseball so I know how big an idiot Jeff Kent is so it is not surprising he has a horrible game plan on the show. Seriously, if you were so keen on getting rid of Penner, why not do it last week? Then had you stuck with him this week you would have had been the leader of the majority alliance with two former players that would be bigger targets. Now you need someone to make a dumber move than you made to get back in control of the game.
You can stream recent episodes over at CBS.com. You can also download Survivor: Philippines on iTunes.

Subugatory: I was super disappointed that after this episode when I went to iTunes, Tessa’s version of Sussudio was not there yet.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Grimm: Last week when the promo monkeys said there was a new, more violent, Grimm was coming to town, I thought, this is just going to be a retread of the other Slayers on Buffy. I do like that it turned out to be a Vessin who hated who he was. But you know there have to be other Grimms out there somewhere.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Grimm on iTunes.